1.5 Current Waste Management Infrastructure

Future plans for the management of waste must be set within the context of the existing waste management situation in Lothian and Borders, which is presented within the Strategic Waste Management Baseline Assessment, (SWMBA) (see Annex 4 for availability of this document). This assessment provides detailed descriptions and data on current waste management practices, flows and sites and demonstrates that in 1999 Lothian and Borders had a relatively self-contained system for the management of household, commercial, and industrial wastes. However, certain specific wastes are either imported or exported for specialist treatment or disposal. Examples of this include clinical waste, organic waste for application to agricultural land and special wastes.

Figure 3 - Lothian and Borders Waste Arisings (2001/2002)

(Data sourced from Local Authorities 2001/2002, Construction and Demolition Waste Priority Waste Stream Project (January 2002), Lothian and Borders SWMBA)

1.5.1 Recycling and Reprocessing

The following table sets out the current routes that are adopted by local authorities to recycle and compost municipal solid wastes.

Table 4 - Routes adopted by Local Authorities for MSW Recycling and Composting (2001)

(1) Composting Units provide by the Local Authority
(2) e.g. situated at supermarket sites. Not including recycling facilities located at Civic Amenity sites.
(3) Covered by Kerbside Collection Service
(4) All sites include bring recycling facilities
Data represents financial year 2001/2002

A number of organisations in addition to the Local Authorities currently undertake a range of primarily business sector waste minimisation initiatives (SEPA, Scottish Borders Enterprise, Farming Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Midlothian Enterprise Trust, Business Environmental Partnership, Scottish Water, CIRIA, SISTech).

Recycling and Reprocessing companies/organisations that are active in the area include:

• Lothian & Edinburgh Environmental Partnership (range of wastes and collection services)
  

• JM Hannay (paper)
  

• MacGlass (glass)
  

• McKenzie Wood Recycling (wood)

• Edinburgh Furniture Initiative
  

• JKS Plastics
  

• Glendevon Recycling (range of wastes)
  

• Norman Cummings Textiles

• Adam Robertson and Co (paper)
  

• AW Jenkinson Woodwaste Ltd
  

• Dalkeith Demolition (C&D).

This level of activity indicates that there is already a great deal of good work in the Lothian and Borders area that will provide a sound basis for future development of an integrated network of sustainable waste services and facilities.

1.5.2 Waste Treatment and Disposal

Table 5 - Current Licensed Waste Management Infrastructure (September 2002)

In common with the rest of Scotland, Lothian and Borders has traditionally relied on landfill as the primary method of waste disposal. As at 2002 there are 17 operational sites located in the Lothian and Borders:

• four “in-house” sites disposing of industrial and inert wastes for the sole use of the operating company (2 closing within 2 years)
  

• four Household/Commercial/Industrial sites – two Council, two Private (Drummond Moor has extension plans for a further 22 years, Easter Langlee has been extended to 2015)
  

• six Inert (two to close within 2 years)
  

• three Commercial/Industrial/Sludges (one to close within a year).

An estimated 9% of the area’s waste is exported mainly to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley waste strategy area (from West Lothian) with imports at around 5% predominantly from the Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway area. It is expected that the higher landfill site engineering and management standards required under the Landfill Directive may result in further site closures and increasing waste management costs. An initial assessment of forward landfill capacity in the Lothian and Borders, based on current available information, indicates that there is adequate landfill provision in the Lothian and Borders for all collected waste for the next 10 years. It should be noted, however, that this assumes all waste arising in the Lothian and Borders area is disposed of in the area and does not take into account changing future contracts and waste imports due to the lack of available projections.

There are seven licensed treatment works in the area where a range of recycling operations take place but the majority of materials collected for recycling are exported outwith the area for final reprocessing. There are also a number of small scale recycling and composting facilities operating throughout the area and registered as Waste Management Exempt Activities – 148 registered in 2000–2001. Further work is required to monitor the tonnage of materials disposed of under these exemptions and to establish those that are ongoing projects or are short term with limited lifespan (see Section 4 for action on improving non-municipal waste data).

1.5.3 Municipal Solid Waste Current Contracts

Although the Lothian and Borders already has an active network of groups and organisations undertaking waste minimisation and recycling initiatives (household recycling rates in the five councils range from 4 to 15% in 2001/2002), the area still relies predominantly on landfill as its primary route for managing wastes. Scottish Borders Council operates its own landfill facility at Easter Langlee, whilst the remaining Councils have contracted out the disposal of their waste to the private sector - Viridor (South Quarry, Dunbar), Waste Recycling Group (Drummond Moor, Oatslie), Shanks Waste Solutions (Greengairs, Avondale).

Table 6 - Current MSW contracts

(1) Landfill site within the Forth Valley Waste Strategy Area
(2) Landfill site within the Glasgow, Clyde Valley Area