Area Introduction
The Forth Valley Area Waste Plan (AWP) was published in 2003, and set out the best practicable environmental option (BPEO) for the management of the area’s Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), which consists of the following elements
A public awareness campaign to reduce waste and increase recycling
- Source segregation of recyclable materials through kerbside collections
- Home composting and centralised composting of segregated green waste
- Development of a materials recovery facility (MRF)
- A review in 2006 of the need for advanced waste treatment technologies.
Implementation of the above measures have been successful in achieving the target of 34% recycling & composting rate set for 2006, up from an average of 6% in 2000/1.
A review was conducted in 2006 to assess how future challenging targets for landfill diversion could be achieved. The following proposals were identified:
1. To maximise recycling by expanding current recycling services.
2. To treat food waste through an In-Vessel Composting (IVC) process.
3. To source a residual waste treatment facility for further landfill diversion
Funding awards to the local authorities from the Scottish Executive have helped to develop the infrastructure necessary to meet the AWP’s targets to date. Local Waste Aware campaigns and activities led by local authority waste education officers will seek to change attitudes to waste.
A Forth Valley Waste Prevention workshop was held, Sept 2006, at the Smith Museum in Stirling, where a list of 20 actions were drawn up. At a following meeting in March 2007, progress updates were reported and prioritised against the national Household Waste Prevention Plan. The following levels of prioritisation were agreed:
- Priority 1 – high priority; establish a programme for delivery 2007/8, ie. maximise reuse & furniture; promote washable nappies.
- Priority 2 – medium priority; follow-up / local activity to be determined by outcomes of scoping projects; programme of delivery to be developed, ie. Increase effectiveness of home & community composting; reduce amount of waste going to landfill by charity shops; promote use of electronic waste exchanges; develop promotional literaure on FV Waste Prevention.
- Priority 3 – low priority; keep watching brief on national / other area activity to inform FV development, ie. promote timebanks & other vol schemes to contribute to WPR projects; develop a FV-wide RePaint / scrapstore project; make contact with local supermarkets to promote WPR / recycling messages.
For a copy of the Forth Valley Waste Prevention Action Plan, click here
