The Highland Waste Strategy Group has now decided upon its proposals as to how rubbish in the area will be managed for the next 20 years. The amount of waste recycled and composted will increase from 2% to an eventual 42% in proposed kerbside collection schemes and hi-tech composting sites. Energy from waste will also play a part in reducing the waste going to landfill from 98% now, down to 28%.

The group has been developing the plan for two years and recently held a major consultation exercise throughout the Highlands. It showed local people favoured much more recycling and composting in order to help dispose of the 500,000 tonnes of rubbish produced in the area each year.

On Thursday 7th March the group met to decide on the 'best practicable environmental option' for the Highlands. This involved a rigorous assessment of each option and its impact on the local environment, economy and society.

The option chosen will cost in the region of £275m over 20 years and could create the equivalent of 1300 full time jobs over the 20 years. It also had the lowest environmental impact of all options considered - in terms of air, land, water, global warming and depletion of non-renewable resources.

The Area Waste Plan, to be published later this year, will set out how this option will be achieved. It will include:

• New waste minimisation initiatives - to encourage waste avoidance, reduction and re-use in the home and business environment.
  
  
• Kerbside recycling collection schemes - avoiding people have to travel a long way to recycling banks.
  
• Composting plants around the Highlands - such as hi-tech 'in-vessel' systems which produce high quality compost for local use.
  
• Energy from waste to deal with waste which cannot easily be recycled or composted - such a facility may use incineration, pyrolysis or gasification techniques (the last two involve heating rather than burning waste).
  
• Landfill, necessarily, but substantially reducing over the period of the plan.
  
  

Lorna Walker of SEPA has co-ordinated the Group's work: "We have gathered sound data to inform our decision, looked objectively at the options open to us, consulted widely with the public and come to a decision which we feel is the best for the Highlands. The views of the public consultation fully informed this decision - we've put the recycling and composting rates up as far as we feel will ultimately be possible, and decreased the potential size of the energy from waste plant."

Tom Anderson of SEPA chairs the group that made the decision: "Only a year or two ago, talking about such high levels of recycling rates would have been seen as revolutionary. The agreement we have today is truly a breakthrough and, hopefully, will see the Highlands going from the bottom of the European recycling league to the top. There is a lot of hard work to be done, not least in securing funds for these improvements. But with strong partnership backing we are optimistic that our plan can be achieved."

Henderson Pollock, Head of Waste Strategy at the Highland Council added: "The Highland Council is still considering tenders from two private sector companies to deliver the Highland's Area Waste Plan. The outcome of the Area Waste Group's deliberations will now be communicated to our bidders who will now make their final offers. If we can, in time, secure all the necessary markets for recyclable materials, and get the additional Executive funding needed, we can achieve the desired result."

ENDS

1. For interviews please contact:

• Lorna Walker on 01349 860363 or 07788 568169
  
• Tom Anderson on 01349 860319 or 07713 053777
  
  

2. Under the National Waste Strategy, Scotland has been split into 11 waste strategy areas, each of which is to develop an Area Waste Plan, outlining how waste will be dealt with over the next 20 years.

3. The Highland Waste Strategy Group is made up of representatives of public bodies (Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Natural Heritage, North of Scotland Water Authority) and representatives of community groups, the waste industry and waste producers.

4. For more background to this story see these pages on the SEPA website:

· http://www.sepa.org.uk/news/releases/2002/pr009.html - results of consultation

· http://www.sepa.org.uk/news/releases/2001/sepapr7901.html - Highland businesses warned about waste deadline

· http://www.sepa.org.uk/news/releases/2001/sepapr6101.html - consultation announced

· http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/index.htm - National Waste Strategy home page