3.3 Elements of the BPEO

3.3.1 Waste Prevention

To develop a waste-prevention plan for Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, a scoping study will be required to assess the quantities and composition of industrial and commercial wastes arising and the potential for reducing or using these wastes. This study would involve SEPA's Waste Minimisation Unit (WaMi), which specialises in waste prevention and minimisation and would draw upon the experience gained through other projects.

For commercial and industrial wastes it has been demonstrated in a number of projects that waste can be prevented at various stages of manufacturing processes, providing both a financial benefit to the company as well as reducing the environmental impact of waste. The key organisations for influencing commercial and industrial waste producers are the Local Enterprise Companies and trade bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses. There have been numerous waste-prevention programmes dealing with commercial and industrial wastes demonstrating clear benefits.

In working with the National Resource and Waste Forum (NRWF), SEPA is developing a national framework to guide the work of the waste strategy groups and other key players on waste prevention. This will include research into best practice in waste prevention, both within the UK and abroad. The outputs from this research will be two-fold:

• Practical guidance to WSAGs on how to develop their own local waste-prevention plan, and the various tools and techniques to choose from.

• National recommendations to policy makers and others on instruments that have been demonstrated as successful in preventing waste.

Using this guidance a waste-prevention plan for Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway can be developed. This plan will set targets, and identify actions to be undertaken locally. It will tie in to national initiatives on education, promotion and emerging policy instruments.

Household waste is by far the greatest proportion of MSW. By reducing growth of the household waste, the diversion required to meet the Landfill Directive targets can be significantly reduced.

Waste prevention can be achieved by the household and businesses through customer decisions about what to buy and how much packaging to accept, etc., and householders choices about how efficiently to use the products they buy and what to do with the products when they're finished - bin them, pass them onto someone who can use them, use them again or use them for something different.

The commercial waste element of MSW also includes general office waste produced by public sector employers, including the local authorities and SEPA. This waste stream was not addressed specifically in the development of waste-management options; rather it was treated as part of the commercial waste stream. However, as waste producers, public sector bodies should take the lead in reducing the waste that they produce (see Action 3).

3.3.2 Reuse and Refurbishment

The reuse and refurbishment of waste is implicit in the Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway AWP. Value is retained and reuse and refurbishment activities can be used to stimulate social inclusion by providing employment and producing goods, which can be used by those who would otherwise struggle to afford goods of this type.

3.3.3 Recycling

The BPEO will require a significant increase in the quantities of materials collected and forwarded to reprocessors for recycling. This will involve significantly increasing the segregated kerbside collections of paper, plastic, textiles, and ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It is possible that glass will also be collected in this way, however, any collection system that produces a mixed (colour) glass fraction will limit the options for reprocessing glass. To achieve the recycling targets set out in section 3.4 will require increasing householder participation rates in segregated kerbside collections. This is illustrated in Table 3.2, which shows the levels of participation in segregated kerbside collection of dry recyclates, which requires to be achieved in each of the target years by each local authority.

Table 3.1 - Levels of Participation in Kerbside Segregated Collections by Dry Recyclate

3.3.4 Composting

Composting currently confined to open windrow systems, which mainly deal with garden waste. In order to compost a greater variety and volume of wastes in a controlled manner, more sophisticated systems will probably have to be used in the future to produce a high quality product. These systems are outlined below.

As the technology for composting evolves in the light of market requirements and the emergence of composting standards, it is felt inappropriate to be overly prescriptive in the type of facility that will be used for the composting process. However, large-scale facilities will be operated indoors and can take the form of:

• in-bay composting;

• in-vessel composting;

• anaerobic digestion (AD) – while this is not strictly speaking composting, this process involves the biodegradation of waste, in the absence of oxygen (see Annex 1). Unlike composting, where the gases are emitted directly to atmosphere, AD recovers the methane generated, with a view to recovering the energy value. For this reason anaerobic digestion is also mentioned in the Recovery Section.

Increasing the quantity of separately collected compostable kitchen and garden wastes will also be required. This will be achieved using segregated kerbside collections (kitchen and garden compostables) and recycling/civic amenity sites provided with separate skips (compostable garden wastes). To achieve the composting targets (see Table 3.3 over) will again require increasing householder participation rates in segregated collections.

Table 3.2 - Composting Targets (as percentage output)

3.3.5 Other Recovery Technologies

These are detailed in Section 2. The use of appropriate other recovery technologies will be considered by the WSAG. These technologies will only be used as part of an integrated waste-management system alongside recycling and composting.

It is clearly unacceptable to merely move from a regime of landfilling the majority of waste to one that advocates total thermal treatment in any of its forms. Such an approach has been rejected in the BPEO analysis. The flexible option proposed recognises that some form other appropriate waste-recovery technologies will be used after 2010 to enable the 2013 and 2020 diversion targets to be successfully met. These technologies include processes such as thermal treatment and other emerging waste-treatment technologies. It should be noted that if recycling and composting activities surpass the percentage targets shown above, then the need for additional technologies will decrease accordingly. However, should monitoring of the plan indicate that recycling and composting rates will not be sufficient to meet diversion targets, then other appropriate waste recovery technologies will have to be used to meet the shortfall. It is expected that other waste-recovery technologies will be assessed for suitability by the WSAG and a decision taken by 2006 on future inclusion within the ADG BPEO (links to other Guidance are available in Annex 3).

3.3.6 Disposal to Landfill

MSW that is not recycled, composted or treated in other ways will be disposed of to landfill. Over the 20 year time frame of this plan there will be a significant reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill and in particular the biodegradable waste going to landfill.

In the short term it has been identified that an additional landfill site for MSW will be required in North Ayrshire Council area (SWMBA 2001). Otherwise there is sufficient landfill capacity across the WSA.

3.3.7 Household Hazardous Waste

Elements of the household waste stream can pose a considerable risk to the environment if they are not handled and disposed of correctly. Although a relatively small percentage stream, less than 1%, they do contribute strongly to its environmental impact, particularly if incinerated or landfilled as part of the general household waste stream. Such materials are known collectively as hazardous household waste and include asbestos, household cleaning products, pesticides, medicines, batteries, fluorescent tubes, waste oils, solvents and thinners, wood preservative, sharps and needles.

There is little experience of the separate collection and management of such wastes in the UK, although this is much more common in continental Europe and North America. The benefits of such an approach can include reduced water and air pollution, reduced public concern over thermal treatment processes and possibilities for recycling and reuse. The EU is working on a draft Directive on household hazardous waste and this is expected around 2004.

A national partnership project is being delivered to investigate the options available to local authorities in Scotland for collecting household hazardous waste separately from the domestic waste stream. Once an initial study has taken place to review the current situation on household hazardous-waste recovery in the UK and Europe and what future legislation will mean for local authorities, pilot collection trials will be implemented to accurately determine the logistical and economic realities of separate household hazardous-waste collections. The project will also investigate current public awareness of the issues to develop effective education campaigns.