Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway Area Waste Plan

Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway
Area Waste Plan

Contents Page

1. Introduction and Context

1.1 Background

Waste management in Scotland is facing a period of rapid and radical change. Driven by European legislation, the need for improved environmental protection and public expectation, we must find ways of reducing our current dependence on landfill and moving towards more sustainable methods of managing waste. We must also seek to reduce the growth in waste arisings, minimise resource use, reduce the hazardous content of waste and to find solutions that do not compromise the future, in line with sustainable development. This will require a fundamental change in our current attitude to waste and an acceptance that we will all have a responsibility to reduce waste and not simply to pass the responsibility to others.

The advent of the Landfill Directive, which deals with the re-classification of landfill sites, stricter control of how they are engineered and what is permitted to be placed in them, is the main driver for change. This will result in lessening the impact of waste generation by requiring more value recovery from waste through recycling, composting and, in the longer term, recovery of the energy from wastes.

Membership of the WSAG, at this stage, is principally in the public sector. This is due, mainly, to the local authorities responsibilities for producing individual Integrated Waste-management plans and their legislative requirements as dictated by the Landfill Directive.

As development of the plan evolves, through the inclusion of options for other waste streams, the membership may change, to reflect the needs of industry and commerce.

It is important that the final AWP adopts an integrated approach that:

ensures that all waste streams are considered together and the solutions chosen for individual waste streams are considered in light of how they impact on the management of others;

considers waste minimisation, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, disposal, promotion and education and local market development in a coherent and planned way;

ensures consistency with adjoining areas and national integration of the plan within the National Waste Strategy: Scotland;

where there are proposals for the import/export of large volumes of waste from the Waste Strategy Area, these proposals are examined as to their compliance with the BPEO both for the receiving and exporting Waste Strategy Areas.

To date the focus of the AWP has been on the wastes that are currently handled by local authorities. This represents some 25% of all the wastes generated within the area (estimated from SWMBA). This waste has a high pollution potential due to its biodegradable content (estimated at 60% in line with EC Landfill directive guidance).

This focus must take into account the different, geographic, political and operational constraints the different authorities work with. In particular, the current contractual arrangements in place between local authorities and private contractors will influence the future waste-management arrangements. Many of these contracts operate on a fixed minimum tonnage to be collected and disposed. As these contracts become available for renegotiation WSAG members should recognise the objectives of the AWP in agreeing new waste-management contracts. Table 1.1 summarises the existing contractual arrangements between local authorities and private contractors.

Table 1.1 - Current MSW Contracts

Council	End date of contract	Contractor	Type of Contract
Dumfries and Galloway	Waste management / Recycling PFI Project Contract bid under negotiation	Preferred bidder Shanks Waste Services	Integrated waste-management strategy see Annex 6
East Ayrshire	2003	Currently out to tender	Existing - disposal to Garlaff landfill site Proposed – see Annex 6
South Ayrshire	2013	Barr Environmental	Existing - disposal to Garlaff landfill site Proposed – see Annex 6
North Ayrshire	Not applicable, operate self-sufficiency policy	Collection and disposal in-house	All in-house See Annex 6

Action 1
Each local authority to ensure that as their waste contract approaches renewal, the chosen options conform to the requirements of the AWP.

It should be noted that other non-MSW waste streams have not been considered to the same degree of detail due to lack of available data. Other wastes are dealt with in Section 4 and include special waste, tyres, batteries, packaging waste and others. A number of these wastes will be the subjects of Priority Waste Stream Projects (See Section 4) and the findings of these will inform the future development of the plan.

It will be important to establish the composition and quantity of the other waste streams within the area. This will be the subject of ongoing work during the next phases of the AWP development and implementation in the Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway area. As with household waste, determining accurate waste data and growth rates for these other waste streams is vitally important.

Action 2
To more clearly define the quantities and nature of wastes other than MSW within the WSA, to enable the integration of facilities for treatment, where appropriate.

Top of the waste hierarchy is waste prevention and the need to change our means of production so as not to produce as much waste. All the authorities have recognised the importance of this and have implicitly included the need to develop waste-prevention strategies to support their application of the BPEO within their authority. Priority will need to be given to devising methodologies to assist in developing and rolling out such strategies for all wastes.

The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) is currently undertaking research projects to determine public attitudes to the waste generated in the home. Part of this work has been undertaken in Dumfries and Galloway, where it is hoped the results will help inform the final shape of the Council's Waste Management/Recycling Public Finance Initiative Project.

Raising awareness of the importance of this issue, particularly in commerce and industry, will be an ongoing programme and is supported by SEPA's national programme for the development of waste minimisation initiatives. Actions to stimulate participation in waste reduction and recycling are needed and will be sought.

Partnership Working
To date, the WSAG has formed the focus for the development of the AWP. This group is a partnership between the four unitary authorities, SEPA and relevant Scottish Enterprise companies. The role of the Scottish Enterprise companies has been limited by the focus on local authorities responsibilities for MSW. The principle drivers being the local authorities' statutory responsibility to deal with household waste, plus their need to comply with the EC Landfill Directive. Given these factors and the lack of good-quality data for industrial and commercial sources of waste, the work of the group has focused on MSW. It is essential that this group continues to meet in some form, so as to monitor and ensure the successful implementation of this first, MSW led phase of the plan. The importance of the participation of the Elected Members in the process cannot be over emphasised.

The actual format and role of the group in the next stages may vary, to account for the task being undertaken. This will be very much determined by how the next phases of the plan will be rolled out. In particular it must be recognised that, despite the laudable efforts of local authorities and the private waste industry, little can be achieved in isolation.

Action 3
The need to develop a suitable Waste Strategy Area Group (WSAG) structure to roll out waste minimisation strategies, primarily covering MSW and the local authorities' statutory duties to deal with its wastes.

The need for SEPA, through the area waste planning process, to develop suitable structures to roll out waste minimisation strategies, covering internal waste reduction and commercial, industrial waste minimisation.

Action 4
To identify the next elements of the AWP and set up aims and objective led groups to specifically target their delivery.

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