3.2 Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) for Municipal Waste (MW)

The Best Practicable Environmental Option details the preferred way to manage municipal waste in Lothian & Borders over the next 13 years. This waste stream consists of the household and commercial wastes collected by the five local authorities in Lothian and Borders.  

Table 1 shows BPEO performance targets, in the years 2010, 2013, 2020, for waste management within the Lothian and Borders Waste Strategy Area. These performance targets are for the Waste Strategy Area as a whole and are not local authority specific. A significant amount of work is required to achieve these targets and the following sections set out the general direction of change required for the future management of wastes in the Lothian and Borders.  Sections 3.2.1 – 3.2.6 provide an indication of how the BPEO targets could be achieved at the time of profiling in June 2007.  Progress towards achieving these targets can be found in the Lothian and Borders Annual Report http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/areas/lothian_borders/resources_info.htm .

The performance targets are not service-level targets.  Achievement of performance targets will be subject to the availability of funding, public participation in services provided and the availability of stable, long term markets for recovered materials.  Local implementation plans, developed by local authorities, will set out the detail of the localised delivery systems based on each of the local authority’s ability to achieve a proportion of the overall Lothian and Borders BPEO and will seek to maximise participation and the minimisation of waste to landfill through prevention, reuse, segregation of recyclables by the householder/business and overall recovery of value from waste before disposal.

The WSAG will aim to optimise sustainable waste management performance within the indicative banding set out in Table 1, and where practicable, efforts will be made to surpass targets in order to manage municipal waste produced in Lothian and Borders higher up the waste hierarchy e.g. waste prevention, recycling and composting.

Table 1 BPEO Performance Targets.

¹ Recycling and Composting (pre sorted) includes waste recovered from the household via kerbside recycling collection systems, recycling points and centres (ref sections 3.2.3 and 3.2.4)

² Assumes that residual waste treatment facilities are unlikely to be developed by 2010, however, this does not preclude earlier residual waste options being brought forward.

³It should be noted that delays to developing residual waste capacity would result in the need for 65% recycling and composting (pre-sorted) to be achieved in order to meet the 2013 Landfill Allowance Scheme target for permitted biodegradable municipal waste to landfill (see section 3.2.6).  This would be subject to funding being available to achieve this level of recycling

⁴ Landfill includes rejects from residual waste treatment along with waste going direct to landfill

⁵ Assumes that residual waste treatment will contribute a minimum of 10% to overall recycling and composting targets for the area. This may be increased depending on the technology.

Further detail on achieving the above BPEO performance targets can be found in Sections 3.2.3 to 3.2.6. Section 3.2.5 relating to indicative residual waste treatment capacity required.

The above targets relate to the municipal wastes that are produced within the Lothians and Borders Waste Strategy Area for treatment and processing.  In addition to the above waste management targets, the Lothian and Borders Waste Strategy Area Group are also committed to developing new Waste Prevention Targets – see Section 3.2.1. 

3.2.1 Waste Prevention 

The Lothian and Borders consultation with the public undertaken by Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) – see consultation report source Annex 4 – during July to September 2001 highlighted a significant lack of awareness of the practical actions that can be carried out by members of the public on waste prevention. Many people perceive recycling as waste prevention and feel that they have no option in buying the significant quantities of packaging sold with goods. Householders need to be more waste aware and empowered to undertake local practical actions that can make a difference – as consumers we all have a choice and a responsibility.

Potential actions that can be progressed include:

Education and awareness campaigns

• Promote home composting
• Reduce food waste through the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign (http://www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk/)
• Encourage use of the Mailing Preference Service, letterbox refusal signs, return to sender campaign  and reduction in unwanted mail through the Unwanted Mail Campaign (http://www.wasteawareunwantedmail.org.uk/)
• Source and promote the use of household envelope reuse labels
• Work with local advertisers to promote the benefits of reduced packaging to potential clients
• Investigate financial incentives to householders to promote participation by householders (e.g. rebate schemes, deposit and refund schemes)
• Promote reusable nappies, establish nappy washing service
• Promotion of Trading Standards’ responsibility to investigate complaints of excessive packaging by consumers (enforceable under the packaging regulations).

Feedback from householders in the consultation noted that they expect more action from manufacturers and feel that purchasing excessive packaging is unavoidable in many circumstances. This requires national action through central government and manufacturers.

SEPA and the Scottish Government have developed a National Household Waste Prevention Action Plan (http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/prevention/action_plan.html) and Waste Prevention Guide (http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/prevention/toolkit.htm) to guide the future work of the Waste Strategy Area Group and other key players on waste prevention. This includes research into best practice in waste prevention, both within the UK and abroad. The outputs from this research will be twofold:

• Practical guidance to Waste Strategy Area Groups 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.

The Lothian and Borders Waste Strategy Area Group can then draw together a local stakeholder group with the remit to identify existing waste-prevention initiatives and develop a Lothian and Borders Waste Prevention Targets by identifying actions to be undertaken locally and will tie into national initiatives on education, promotion and emerging policy instruments.

The BPEO seeks to actively promote home composting as a form of reducing waste entering the collection system for subsequent treatment and processing. The table below indicates the percentage of Lothian and Borders householders that can reduce the amount of putrescible waste and provide a useful product for use in the garden at home by participating in the use of home composters (the level of participation is also a percentage of households that are assumed to have adequate garden space for a composter) at time of initial BPEO profiling in May 2001. Where practicable, 100% of households with sufficient garden space will be offered home composting units.

Table 2 - Lothian and Borders Householders Participating in Home Composting

Excludes homemade composting activities

Current research indicates that home composting can reduce waste for disposal by around 150 kg per household per year. Any expansion of home composting systems in the Lothian and Borders will require monitoring to establish the overall benefit it can bring to the BPEO targets.

Leading By Example

Members of the Waste Strategy Area Group have a significant combined impact on waste arisings as key local organisations that produce waste. The group will be seeking to lead by example through adopting in-house waste minimisation strategies to develop actions such as:

• examine procurement activities with a view to promoting waste minimisation, reuse and purchase of recycled materials.
• introduce staff training and raise awareness of waste issues with practical examples of individual actions.
• monitor waste produced by the organisation and sign up to targets for minimising waste for disposal.

3.2.2 Reuse and Refurbishment

The reuse and refurbishment of waste is implicit in the Lothian and Borders Area Waste Plan. 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 that type. Potential reuse schemes that have been suggested by the public consultation are reusable nappy washing services, reusing plastic bags, promotion and more widespread availability of refillable containers, reusing wooden pallets, development of community re-paint schemes, computer refurbishment, areas within Recycling Centres for the public to deposit reusable items, recovering more reusable items from Council Bulky Uplift Services. The community sector has a key role to play in the provision of local reuse and refurbishment services.

3.2.3 Recycling (pre sorted)

The BPEO requires a significant increase in the amount of materials collected and forwarded to reprocessors for recycling.

See Table 1 (Section 3.2) on the Waste Strategy Area performance targets for the optimisation of recycling activities in the waste strategy area.  It should be noted that the achievement of these recycling (pre sorted) targets is dependent on the availability of funding, participation by Lothian and Borders householders and the availability of stable, long term markets for recovered materials.  Progress towards these targets will be reviewed and reported on regularly in the Area Waste Plan Annual Report http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/areas/lothian_borders/resources_info.htm

The BPEO performance targets will require further optimisation of recycling targets beyond the current SWF1 funded activities. The specific details of how these performance targets will be achieved have yet to be determined and are dependent on the availability of funding.

Working towards these targets will require the segregated collection of a number of dry recyclable materials, such as paper, plastic, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It is also possible that glass can be collected by segregated kerbside collections, although due to manual-handling safety requirements, glass collection will primarily be sourced via bring sites. A significant proportion of the households in Lothian and Borders will be required to participate in segregated kerbside collections.

Table 3 provides an indication of the level of households targeted for segregated kerbside collection of dry recyclate in each of the target years for the Lothian and Borders as profiled in the Strategic Waste Fund Phase 1 funding bids awarded by the Scottish Government.   It should be noted that the percentages might change between kerbside recycling collections and bring site coverage (Table 4) as a result of and potential implementation of ongoing research in Best Practice in Collection Systems, and the approval of the proposals to optimise Recycling targets by the Scottish Government Strategic Waste Fund. 

Table 3 - Extent of Dry Recyclables Collection in the Lothian and Borders

There are a number of methods by which kerbside recycling collection can be undertaken. These can include sacks, boxes or wheeled bins that are pre-sorted by the householder and with additional sorting en-route or sorted at a materials recovery facility. The best method depends upon housing type and geographical location. During the phase one consultation in 2001, of those householders surveyed, 81% stated that they would prefer to participate in kerbside collection of recyclables if a suitable service was offered. In reality, studies carried out to date have indicated that participation rates are lower, between 40 and 60%. This indicates the need for significant levels of education and awareness to ensure high participation rates are realised.

A particular consideration for the area is the collection of recyclables from those premises with limited storage provision. For example, in dense urban areas or tenement housing. This is a particular issue for the City of Edinburgh that has tenement blocks account for approximately 65% of its total housing. Research on collections systems for this housing type can be found on the Lothian and Borders Area Waste Plan web pages.  City of Edinburgh is bidding for funding for high density on street recycling points for 1 per 100 properties for tenement areas to collect paper, cans, cardboard and drinks cartons, and certain plastics.  This would significantly increase the percentage of households offered a dry recyclate recycling service in Table 3 above.

In addition to pre sorted collections there is a need to progressively increase the number of bring recycling centres in each of the Local Authority areas. These can take the form of the current supermarket sites that consist of a number of modular or wheeled bin containers for single stream materials, or an extension of the city containerisation initiative (City of Edinburgh Council) which sites recycling containers on tenement streets along with containers for residual waste for disposal. These facilities will collect recyclate from households that are unable to participate in a kerbside recycling collection and will also be developed for those materials that are not suitable for kerbside recycling collections.

Table 4 below provides indicative numbers of recycling points that have been approved for Strategic Waste Fund Phase 1. It should be noted that the number of recycling points developed may change over time if proposals to optimise Recycling targets by the Scottish Government’s Strategic Waste Fund are approved. 

Table 4 – Number of Recycling Points in the Lothian and Borders

New facilities and infrastructure will be required in order to sort and package recyclable materials prior to onward transportation to reprocessors, Clean Materials Recycling Facilities will require to be provided.

As with waste prevention, Waste Strategy Area Group members have a significant combined impact on waste arisings in the local area from their consumption of goods and materials and aim to lead by example through in-house recycling and waste minimisation.

Consultation with both the public and waste producers have highlighted the importance of Community Recycling Centre provision. Small businesses were concerned with the current restrictions on using sites for trade waste and all stakeholders believed this to be a major factor contributing to fly tipping and illegal dumping of waste. Large scale Community Recycling Centres can provide opportunities to recover a range of materials and, where appropriate, can reprocess some of the segregated wastes, e.g. wood, construction and demolition waste, garden wastes and recover items for refurbishment and reuse. On-site staff require training and motivation, and can oversee the segregation of wastes whilst providing assistance to site visitors. Increased sorting of wastes will result in a greatly improved local service and minimisation of waste for disposal. Potential opportunities exist for partnership working between local authorities and the private sector to undertake the operation of local facilities.

3.2.4 Composting (pre sorted)  

See Table 1 (Section 3.2) on the Waste Strategy Area performance targets for the optimisation of composting activities in the waste strategy area.  It should be noted that the achievement of these targets is dependent on the availability of funds, participation by Lothian and Borders Householders and the availability of stable, long term markets for recovered materials. Progress towards these targets will be reviewed and reported on regularly in the Area Waste Plan Annual Report http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/areas/lothian_borders/resources_info.htm

The BPEO performance targets will require further optimisation of composting targets beyond the current SWF1 funded activities as noted above. The specific details of how these will be achieved have yet to be determined and are dependent on the availability of funding.

With a commitment to research and development on improving the quality of the end product, the Waste Strategy Area Group aims to have a high percentage of material that can be ultimately sold as a peat substitute.  To achieve this, significant quantities of biodegradable wastes will need to be collected and composted. These wastes will be collected through segregated kerbside collections. Community Recycling Centres in each Local Authority area will also provide separate skips for compostable garden wastes. 

Further research is being carried out on the potential to further increase composting targets through the inclusion of food waste in composting schemes.  The outcome of this research may further impact on the optimisation of composting (pre sorted) targets for Lothian and Borders.

Table 5 provides an indication of the level of households targeted for segregated kerbside collection of green waste in each of the target years for the Lothian and Borders as profiled in the Strategic Waste Fund Phase 1 funding bids awarded by the Scottish Government.   It should be noted that the percentages might change as a result of and potential implementation of ongoing research in Best Practice in Collection Systems, and the approval of the proposals to optimise composting targets by the Scottish Government Strategic Waste Fund. 

Table 5 - Collection of pre sorted green waste in the Lothian and Borders

* Percentage of total households in Lothian and Borders and therefore includes houses and flatted properties without gardens

A number of local compost operations will be established across the area. It is likely that in-vessel type technologies will be required to compost the kitchen wastes in order to kill any pathogens and comply with the Animal By-Products Order. The potential of “on-farm” composting in the more rural areas of Lothian and Borders will also be an option for further investigation.

3.2.5 Residual Waste Treatment

As recognised within the 2003 Area Waste Plan BPEO, the mid to long-term statutory targets to reduce biodegradable waste disposed of to landfill will be more challenging to achieve, and will therefore require the development of residual waste infrastructure to supplement ongoing waste prevention, recycling and composting (pre sorted) activities.  Residual waste treatment facilities will also seek to recover further value from wastes prior to disposal to landfill, which is in line with the principles of the waste hierarchy. The scale of other treatment technologies required will largely depend on the short to medium term achievements of waste prevention, recycling and composting that will be optimised where practicable, but given the position of residual waste treatment in the waste hierarchy, the capacity of residual treatment should not be procured at the expense of complying with waste prevention and recycling targets. However, the provision of residual waste treatment does have a place as a viable alternative to landfill.

In order to achieve the output percentage targets set out in Table 1, residual waste input capacity of around 45% - 56% (of total municipal waste arisings) may need to be developed in Lothian and Borders by 2020. This will however, be very much dependent on the technology developed and will be dealt with at the procurement stage that will also define the number and capacity of facilities. 

The 2003 Area Waste Plan also noted that the L&B BPEO is an evolving option that will need to be reviewed to accommodate the findings of research on available residual waste technologies and assessment of ongoing waste trends. 

Residual waste treatment facilities that are developed in Lothian and Borders will contribute to the overall Recycling and Composting target. The BPEO assumes that a minimum of 10% of total waste arisings will be added to overall recycling and composting targets for the area. This may be increased depending on the technology developed.  Recycling from residual waste facilities can be achieved through activities such as recycling of thermal treatment ash, extraction and recycling of metals and stabilisation of biowaste through mechanical biological treatment.   The main component of residual waste treatment facilities is additional diversion from landfill through process loss, for example, evaporation of the moisture content within biowaste, reduction by thermal treatment and production of Refuse Derived Fuel for subsequent burning.  All residual waste treatment will produce residues, even after all processing has taken place, which require disposal to landfill (these have been included in the total municipal waste to landfill percentage target, also see section 3.2.6).

The BPEO is no longer technology prescriptive, and the residual waste treatment performance target in Table 4 could be met through a range of residual waste treatment technologies. Examples of these potential technology options are outlined at http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/planning/guidance_links.htm and http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/promotion/info_resources.htm.

Any residual waste facilities that are developed must represent the best option for the area and have fully considered environmental, social and economic impacts, and should meet the performance targets of the Lothian and Borders BPEO (see Table 1).  Any proposals will be subject to public consultation under the statutory Land Use Planning system, Environmental Impact Assessment Requirements and Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit applications.  The consideration of residual waste treatment proposals will take the following AWP commitments into account:

• Consideration should be given to incorporating appropriate segregated wastes or refuse-derived fuel as an alternative fuel source to fossil fuels in suitable industrial processes, e.g. cement manufacture where appropriate.
• Any proposals incorporating mixed waste composting processes should aim to optimise the quality of the end product to suit end market availability and regulatory requirements.
• The Waste Strategy Area Group ruled out sending unsegregated municipal waste directly for thermal treatment, historically this has been termed mass burn incineration.  This decision is supported by the SEPA Guidelines for Thermal Treatment of Municipal Waste found at http://www.sepa.org.uk/pdf/nws/guidance/thermal_treatment.pdf
• Any Thermal Treatment options should take SEPA’s Thermal Treatment Guidelines into account.
• The capacity of residual waste treatment for municipal waste in Lothian and Borders will not interfere with recycling and composting (pre sorted) aspirations.
• Residual waste treatment proposals should seek to further optimise recycling and/or composting performance targets where practicable with full consideration of market availability and compliance with environmental regulation (see residual waste recycling/composting performance targets).
• All opportunities should be investigated to meet required standards and respond to available end-product markets.
• Consideration should be given to locating any EfW facilities in proximity to heat users as there is potential for EfW to produce heat which can be used for industrial, commercial or residential use.
• Consideration should be given to potential synergies with Commercial and Industrial wastes in the area.
• Consideration should be given to the proximity principle, transportation distances and the carbon footprint.  

3.2.6 Disposal

Any waste which is not recycled or composted and from which no further value can be recovered via residual waste treatment , will be disposed of to landfill. Over the next 13 years there will be a significant reduction in the amount of waste directed to landfill and, in particular, the biodegradable component of waste as a direct result of the Landfill Directive.

Table 6 - Statutory Targets for the permitted biodegradable waste to landfill have been set by the Scottish Government.

The L&B BPEO aims to further these Landfill Directive targets significantly by optimising the recovery of potential value from Municipal Wastes produced in the Lothian and Borders. 

Information on the Landfill Allowance Scheme can be found on the SEPA website at http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/data/returns.htm and guidance produced by the Scottish Government for the Landfill Allowance Scheme (Scotland) Regulation 2005 can be viewed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/04/18110606/0

It should be noted there will be an additional requirement for landfill provision for rejected contaminants from waste collected for recycling and composting (pre sorted), along with residues from further processing.  The above target does not include these additional disposal wastes and covers performance targets for waste going direct to landfill only. 

In recognition of these targets to significantly reduce waste disposed of to landfill, the Area Waste Plan proposes that by 2020, all households that are appropriate will have a reduced requirement for residual waste collection. This may result in local authorities considering the introduction of alternate week collection systems where appropriate with materials for recycling and composting collected on the remaining alternate weeks, maintaining weekly collections from households.  Such collection systems are not suitable for some housing types, for instance, there are specific issues for flatted properties in the City of Edinburgh and other areas which will need to be addressed. Local communities will be consulted on any changes to current waste collection services.

A Strategic Waste Management Review has been undertaken in the Lothian and Borders and will provide information on the capacity of all waste management activities in the waste strategy area including landfill. This will be published at the weblink http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/areas/lothian_borders/index.htm and will be reviewed and updated accordingly.

All figures in '000 tonnes and are indicative only.
Other Treatment Technologies – indicates the proportion of waste that may be available for alternative treatment technologies if they are to be developed in the longer term (2020). The fraction of waste
requiring other treatment will depend on the success or otherwise of recycling and composting efforts in the early stages of Area Waste Plan implementation.
Waste Collection Phase – examples of collection at time of initial BPEO modelling in May 2001

In working with the National Resource and Waste Forum (NRWF), SEPA is developing a national framework to guide the future work of the Waste Strategy Area Group 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 twofold:

• Practical guidance to Waste Strategy Area Groups 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.

The Lothian and Borders Waste Strategy Area Group can then draw together a local stakeholder group with the remit to identify existing waste-prevention initiatives and develop a Lothian and Borders Waste Prevention Plan. This plan will set targets, identify actions to be undertaken locally and will tie into national initiatives on education, promotion and emerging policy instruments.

Action 3
Councils will seek funds from the Strategic Waste Fund and other sources to employ additional staff resources with a remit including waste prevention.

Action 4
Identify existing waste-prevention initiatives and develop a Lothian and Borders Waste Prevention guidance.

The BPEO seeks to actively promote home composting as a form of reducing waste entering the collection system for subsequent treatment and processing. The table below indicates the percentage of Lothian and Borders householders that can reduce the amount of putrescible waste and provide a useful product for use in the garden at home by participating in the use of home composters (the level of participation is also a percentage of households that are assumed to have adequate garden space for a composter) at time of initial BPEO profiling in May 2001. It is likely that up to 100% of households with sufficient garden space in the Lothian and Borders would be offered home composting units where practicable.

Table 9 - Lothian and Borders Householders Participating in Home Composting

Excludes homemade composting activities

Current research indicates that home composting can reduce waste for disposal by around 150 kg per household per year. Any expansion of home composting systems in the Lothian and Borders will require monitoring to establish the overall benefit it can bring to the BPEO targets.

Action 5
Local Authorities will undertake monitoring of BMW diversion achieved by home composting when expanding local distribution of units.

Leading By Example
Members of the Waste Strategy Area Group have a significant combined impact on waste arisings as key local organisations that produce waste. The group will be seeking to lead by example through adopting in-house waste minimisation strategies to develop actions such as:

• examine procurement activities with a view to promoting waste minimisation, reuse and purchase of recycled materials.
  

• introduce staff training and raise awareness of waste issues with practical examples of individual actions.

• monitor waste produced by the organisation and sign up to targets for minimising waste for disposal.

Action 6
All organisations represented on the Waste Strategy Area Group will lead by example and adopt a waste minimisation strategy.

3.2.2 Reuse and Refurbishment

The reuse and refurbishment of waste is implicit in the Lothian and Borders Area Waste Plan. 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 that type. Potential reuse schemes that have been suggested by the public consultation are reusable nappy washing services, reusing plastic bags, promotion and more widespread availability of refillable containers, reusing wooden pallets, development of community re-paint schemes, computer refurbishment, areas within Civic Amenity Sites for the public to deposit reusable items, recovering more reusable items from Council Bulky Uplift Services. The community sector has a key role to play in the provision of local reuse and refurbishment services.

Action 7
Councils will examine opportunities for reuse and refurbishment, particularly looking at further separation of civic amenity and bulky household wastes. This may be facilitated through partnership working with community groups.

Action 8
Recognise good practice in the Edinburgh Furniture Initiative and re-paint schemes and further develop similar schemes throughout the area, where appropriate, in partnership with community groups.

Action 9
Recognise good practice of the Nappy Days Environmentally Friendly Nappy Washing service and further develop similar services throughout the area. Local Authorities and Hospitals to consider the adoption of a real nappy policy and support good practice elsewhere.

3.2.3 Recycling

The BPEO requires a significant increase in the amount of materials collected and forwarded to reprocessors for recycling. This will require the segregated collection of a number of dry recyclable materials, such as paper, plastic, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It is also possible that glass can be collected by segregated kerbside collections, although due to manual-handling safety requirements, glass collection will primarily be sourced via bring sites. A significant proportion of the households in Lothian and Borders will be required to participate in segregated kerbside collections. Table 10 provides an indication of the level of segregated kerbside collection of dry recyclate in each of the target years for the Lothian and Borders at initial BPEO profiling in May 2001. It should be noted that the percentages might change between source segregation (which is predominantly kerbside) and bring site coverage (Table 11) once local Implementation Plans are developed and the most suitable collections systems established to maximise the segregation recyclables by the householder.

Table 10 - Extent of Source Segregated Dry Recyclables Collection in the Lothian and Borders

There are a number of methods by which source segregated collection can be undertaken. These can include sacks, boxes or wheeled bins that are pre-sorted by the householder and with additional sorting en-route or sorted at a materials recovery facility. The best method depends upon housing type and geographical location and will be determined after further investigation. During the phase one consultation in 2001, of those householders surveyed, 81% stated that they would prefer to participate in kerbside collection of recyclables if a suitable service was offered. In reality, studies carried out to date have indicated that participation rates are lower, between 40 and 60%. This indicates the need for significant levels of education and awareness to ensure high participation rates are realised.

Action 10
Local authorities to continue trials and evaluation of a range of collection methods for recycling and composting.

A particular consideration for the area is the collection of recyclables from those premises with limited storage provision. For example, in dense urban areas or tenement housing. A research project funded by Edinburgh Environmental Partnership and managed by SISTech with partnership working between SEPA, LEEP, SWAG and City of Edinburgh Council looked in particular at best international practice for collecting recyclables from tenement properties. This is a particular issue for the City of Edinburgh that has tenement blocks account for around 65% of its total housing. The source of these research outputs and consultations are detailed in Annex 4

In addition to source segregated collections there will a need to progressively increase the number of bring recycling centres in each of the Local Authority areas. These can take the form of the current supermarket sites that consist of a number of modular or wheeled bin containers for single stream materials, or an extension of the city containerisation initiative (City of Edinburgh Council) which sites recycling containers on tenement streets along with containers for residual waste for disposal. These facilities will collect recyclate from households that are unable to participate in a source segregated kerbside collections and will also be developed for those materials that are not suitable for segregated kerbside collection.

Table 11, below provides indicative numbers of bring recycling sites that could be established throughout the area at initial BPEO profiling in May 2001. The actual number of sites developed will depend upon overcoming locational and planning issues associated with these sites.

Table 11 - Number of Recyclate at Bring Sites in the Lothian and Borders

New facilities and infrastructure will be required in order to sort and package recyclable materials prior to onward transportation to reprocessors, Clean Materials Recycling Facilities will require to be provided. The level of infrastructure required for such facilities is indicated within Table 14, Section 3.4.1.

As with waste prevention, Waste Strategy Area Group members have a significant combined impact on waste arisings in the local area from their consumption of goods and materials.

Action 11
Waste Strategy Area Group members to lead by example and commit to in-house recycling targets.

Consultation with both the public and waste producers highlighted the importance of Civic Amenity Site provision. Small businesses were concerned with the current restrictions on using sites for trade waste and all stakeholders believed this to be a major factor contributing to fly tipping and illegal dumping of waste. Largescale civic amenity sites can provide opportunities to recover a range of materials and, where appropriate, can reprocess some of the segregated wastes, e.g. wood, construction and demolition waste, garden wastes and recover items for refurbishment and reuse. On-site staff require training and motivation, and can oversee the segregation of wastes whilst providing assistance to site visitors. Increased sorting of wastes will result in a greatly improved local service and minimisation of waste for disposal. Potential opportunities exist for partnership working between local authorities and the private sector to undertake the operation of local facilities.

Action 12
Consider and investigate potential for local authorities to work in partnership with waste industry in operating facilities.

3.2.4 Composting

The BPEO for Lothian and Borders recognises the end-product quality issues of mixed-waste composting processes and whilst it is likely that the majority of composting undertaken will be to stabilise biodegradable wastes in the short term; the longer-term aim will be to increase source segregation of putrescible wastes to ensure a much higher-quality end product is produced to suit end market availability. With a commitment to research and development on improving the quality of the end product, the Waste Strategy Area Group aims to have a high percentage of material that can be ultimately sold as a peat substitute.

Action 13
Operators of composting facilities will undertake research into the long- term development of high-quality composted products.

To achieve this, significant quantities of compostable garden and kitchen wastes will need to be collected and composted. These wastes will be collected through segregated kerbside collections. Civic Amenity Sites in each Local Authority area will also provide separate skips for compostable garden wastes.

Table 12 provides an indication of the levels of segregated kerbside collection of putrescibles that could be achieved in each of the target years at the time of initial BPEO profiling in May 2001.

Table 12 - Collection of Source Segregated Putrescibles in the Lothian and Borders

A number of local compost operations will be established across the area. It is likely that in-vessel type technologies will be required to compost the kitchen wastes in order to kill any pathogens and comply with the Animal By-Products Order. The potential of “on-farm” composting in the more rural areas of Lothian and Borders will also be an option for further investigation.

3.2.5 Example of Recycling and Composting Strategies of Lothians and Borders Councils

Drummond Moor Complex – The complex is proposed by Waste Recycling Group plc who operate an existing landfill on site. The principle of the Mixed-Waste Processing Facility is to maximise the recovery of materials for recycling prior to composting the biodegradable fraction of MSW. The complex already has planning permission and environmental authorisation for a throughput of 100 000 tonnes/year, with the potential for expansion. It will initially be based on the intake of a mostly mixed-waste stream, but will accommodate the future development of additional lines to undertake the recovery for recycling of specific source-segregated materials. It will also be capable of producing high-quality composted material from source-segregated green waste, in addition to stabilised biowaste from mixed waste. The facility will also include an education centre for the public and local schools to visit and raise awareness of waste management/environmental issues.

Midlothian Council – Midlothian Council has produced an outline business case for its waste management strategy and has applied for strategic waste funding from the Scottish Executive. The Council is proposing to tender its integrated waste management strategy based upon full compliance with the Landfill Directive and recycling targets at an early date without the need to rely on developing advanced incineration technologies.

West Lothian Three Bin Collection System – West Lothian Council have introduced a fundamental change in the way waste and recyclables are collected that has been trialled over the past year. Households are issued with three 240 litre wheeled containers and collections are made in rotation: Week 1 Waste, Week 2 Green Waste, Week 3 Waste, Week 4 Recyclables. An additional container to collect glass from households has recently been offered to pilot households.

City of Edinburgh Council – The Council are currently developing an Integrated Waste Management Strategy. It will provide a holistic approach to waste management issues, leading to integrated waste management systems and services, which reflect the importance of waste minimisation, reuse, recycling, composting, recovery and disposal in line with the Best Practicable Environmental Option. Partnership opportunities will be fully explored to implement this strategy and the Area Waste Plan. In the immediate term, the council is engaged in a number of initiatives to reduce and recycle more waste, promote home composting, introduce a fortnightly kerbside paper collection to over 14 000 home, and trials of on-street paper banks in tenement areas. Biodegradable garden waste collections have been expanded to all civic amenity sites, and efforts are being made to establish the viability of recycling more waste from civic amenity sites, and expanding the range of “bring” recycling sites for various materials.

East Lothian Council – consolidating its recycled glass collection through a network of 150 bottle banks. In addition to paper banks in all the main towns and, in conjunction with LEEP, a kerbside paper collection extending to 25 000 households started in Autumn 2001. The council has a number of other recycling initiatives, including segregation of green waste and other materials at Civic Amenity Sites.

Scottish Borders Council – due to the imminent closure of all three of its landfill facilities for MSW, the Council has been working on a local waste strategy since 1996. Following initial invitations to provide the council with a waste management strategy, two companies accepted the offer to tender against the in-house provision of services. The options that have been considered locally (and translated into the Lothian and Borders Options Profiling exercise) were new waste-transfer facilities in Berwickshire and Roxburghshire, upgrading of wastetransfer facility in Tweedale, provision of waste-treatment plant, upgrading of Easter Langlee Landfill Site, restoration of Cleugh and Dunion Hill Landfill Sites, consolidation and improvement of existing Civic Amenity Sites and introduction of civic amenity facilities in Peebles. The proposals for the waste strategy have undergone a local BPEO evaluation as set out in SEPA’s guidance.

3.2.6 Other Recovery

The Lothian and Borders BPEO appraisal group and Waste Strategy Area Group has ruled out mass burn incineration of any future BPEO consideration of sustainable waste management systems for the Lothian and Borders. It is recognised that the future for Energy from Waste may lie with emerging technologies, such as pyrolysis or gasification and anaerobic digestion. These have been proven in a range of applications, such as coal gasification, tyre processing and biofuels, composting of sludges and other homogenous materials with a high-biodegradable content, but are not currently proven in the UK for the treatment of a mixed household and commercial waste stream. Such technologies may also require careful waste pre-treatment. At present, the Waste Strategy Area Group do not feel these technologies represent a current sustainable solution for the short to medium term of the plan.

As recognised within the BPEO conclusions, the long-term biodegradable waste diversion requirements of the landfill directive will be more challenging to achieve through recycling and composting alone, and other treatment technologies may need to be considered. Before committing these technologies to the long-term integrated BPEO for the Lothian and Borders, further review and investigation will be undertaken on the processes that are available along with the extent of MSW treatment that may be required in the long term. The scale of other treatment technologies required will largely depend on the short to medium term achievements of waste prevention, recycling and composting.

Consideration will also be given to incorporating appropriate segregated wastes or refuse-derived fuel as an alternative fuel source to fossil fuels in suitable industrial processes, e.g. cement manufacture.

The L&B BPEO is an evolving option that will be reviewed to accommodate the findings of the investigation work proposed above and will support the implementation of a plan that can adequately respond to, and accommodate local requirements.

Action 14
Undertake extensive review of new and advanced technologies including energy recovery from waste and assess the development requirements of these processes to meet long-term landfill directive requirements.

Action 15
Organise new technologies seminar as part of the technology-assessment process to ensure informed decision making.

3.2.7 Disposal

Any waste which is not recycled or composted and from which no further value can be recovered, will be disposed of to landfill. In addition, reject material from all these processes will also require disposal to landfill. Over the next 18 years there will be a significant reduction in the amount of waste directed to landfill and, in particular, the biodegradable component of waste as a direct result of the Landfill Directive. In recognition of this, the BPEO proposes that by 2020, all households that are appropriate will have a reduced requirement for residual waste collection which may result in alternate week collection, such as the West Lothian model detailed in the West Lothian Three Bin Collection System, Section 3.2.5. Specific issues for tenement housing will need to be addressed.

Residual waste remaining from source segregated recyclable and composting schemes will be processed via 1) Mixed-Waste Processing (sorts and recovers materials prior to composting to produce an end product that can be used for land remediation or a soil substitute) or 2) Mixed-Waste Stabilisation (producing a stabilised waste with reduced biodegradability that will be landfilled) 3) Mixed-Waste technologies can also produce refuse-derived fuel for further energy recovery (see Section 3.2.6) and all opportunities will be investigated to meet required standards and respond to available end-product markets.

An initial review of existing landfill capacity in the Lothian and Borders indicates that there is sufficient capacity for landfill disposal for the next 18 years. This does not take full account of local proximity issues within the waste-strategy area boundaries or additional capacity required for non-municipal solid wastes that landfill sites accepting MSW would also dispose of. Section 3.4.1 provides more detail from this initial landfill capacity assessment.