Lothians & Borders Waste Strategy Area Group
The Waste Strategy Area Group has overall responsibility for implementing the Area Waste Plan (AWP) in Lothian and Borders. It was set up in April 2000 to:
- Develop the AWP for Lothian and Borders
- Steer implementation of the National Waste Strategy at a local level through working groups and member organisations
- Take responsibility for the ongoing development of the AWP
- Monitor progress in implementing the AWP
The WSAG meets regularly. A list of WSAG member organisations is available here.
Lothians & Borders Working Groups
Subgroups working under the supervision of the Waste Strategy Area Group are responsible for specific aspects of the Area Waste Plan (AWP). The following subgroups have been established in the Lothians & Borders area:
Lothian & Borders Business Waste Aware
The Lothian and Borders Business Waste Aware group was set up as a sub group of the Waste Strategy Area Group in April 2005. The main role of the group is:
- to influence political thinking and improve non-municipal waste management
- to provide clear guidance on the implementation of legislation – businesses only gear up for new legislation once they know that it will definitely come into force and affect them
- to create a central source of streamlined information on waste management services and funding
The organisations who sit on the group include: the five Local Authorities; Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce; Business Environment Partnership; Federation of Small Businesses; Scottish Enterprise: Borders; Scottish Enterprise: Edinburgh & Lothian; Scottish Environmental Services Association; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Scottish Waste Awareness Group; The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges
Lothian & Borders Community Recycling Forum
The Lothian & Borders Community Recycling Forum (CRF) was set up in August 2005 with support from the Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS); SEPA and the Lothian & Borders Waste Strategy Area Group.
To determine whether or not a CRF was required in the area a number of focus groups were held in May 2005. The results of these meetings signified that a Lothian & Borders specific CRF would be welcomed. The CRNS would facilitate the meetings with a view to the CRF becoming more independent as time went on.
The main aims of the CRF are as follows:
- To facilitate networking and partnership working between the organisations in the Lothian & Borders area.
- To directly feed into the Waste Strategy Area Group (WSAG) meetings and the Area Waste Plan.
- To allow the flow of information from the WSAG to the CRF and vice versa to become more efficient and effective.
- To facilitate effective communication through the sharing of ideas and knowledge, best practice examples and examples of successes and failures.
- To provide an effective vehicle to provide training.
- To provide a platform to present up-to-date information relating to recycling, re-use, refurbishment, composting, education and awareness raising.
- To produce results rather than act as a talking shop.
For details of membership, please visit the CRNS website (linking to http://www.crns.org.uk/members/area_groups/lothians.htm)
The Lothian & Borders In-house Waste Minimisation & Recycling Subgroup
The Lothian and Borders Area Waste Plan has been developed by the Waste Strategy Area Group to contribute to the sustainable development of the Lothian and Borders Area by developing waste management systems that will control waste generation, reduce the environmental impacts of waste production, improve resource efficiency and stimulate economic opportunities arising from waste.
Members of the Waste Strategy Area Group, have a significant combined impact on waste arisings in Lothian and Borders from their consumption of goods and materials. In recognition of this, the group made a public commitment to:
- Examine procurement activities with a view to promoting waste minimisation, reuse and the 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
- Segregate waste for recycling and reprocessing
To ensure that the Waste Strategy Area Group upholds its commitments, this working group is meeting to share best practice and ensure that similar targets are set within each member organisation to enable benchmarking.
Lothian & Borders Planning Subgroup
The remit of the Lothian & Borders Planning Subgroup is to:
- Advise on land use implications of the Lothian & Borders Area Waste Plan
- Establish best practice on development control issues related to waste
- Develop supplementary guidance and local plan policy on waste-related issues
- Hold pre-consultation discussions about any major waste management facilities
- Identify preferred sites or areas of search for new waste management facilities.
The group consists of:
- Strategic planners or heads of planning from the five local authorities
- SEPA planning officer (chair)
- Waste Strategy Area Coordinator (WSAC) for Lothian & Borders
Lothian & Borders Waste Aware Subgroup
Lothian & Borders Waste Aware supports and implements reduce, reuse and recycle initiatives run by the public, private, not-for profit and community sectors that seek to promote a positive waste culture in Lothian and the Borders. Additionally, each member organisation of the sub-group provides local waste awareness education.
The group is made up of representatives from: Community Recycling Network for Scotland representing the Lothian & Borders Community Recycling Forum, Changeworks (formerly known as LEEP) , Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) (chair) , SEPA, Waste management departments of the five local authorities
Lothian & Borders Waste Management Project
Working in partnership, the five local authorities in the Lothian and Borders area (City of Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders) submitted an outline business case to the Scottish Executive at the end of March 2006 to jointly procure a waste management solution for the South-east Scotland area. The proposal focuses on the processing of residual waste to comply with stringent European targets for diversion of waste from landfill sites and involve the introduction of new large-scale integrated waste recycling and treatment technologies not yet available in Scotland.
Lothian & Borders Waste Prevention Subgroup
The Lothian & Borders Waste Prevention sub-group was formed in January 2005 and carried out a scoping exercise using SEPA’s process guidance and the CRNS Mapping Study. Existing initiatives were identified, as were some that should be developed in the area and these are summaries in a Wish List . The Charity Hub project was identified as the local pathfinder project, to which SEPA and other partners provided seed funding. A number of other initiatives were identified but will only be taken forward based on what funding is secured through INCREASE and partner organisations. These projects will feed into the local Waste Prevention Action Plan. The Waste Prevention Toolkit (still to be published) will form the basis of the local Waste Prevention Action Plan, which will be finalised during the next financial year.
The waste prevention toolkit will result in local waste prevention plans being drawn up. These are likely to be finalised in the next financial year and the expertise of this group will be drawn on to ensure that people are aware of the plan and have opportunity to comment upon it.
The Lothian & Borders Waste Prevention Sub-group will enable the five local authorities & the community sector to work together to deliver these plans.
The group consists of representatives from the five local authorities (and is chaired by City of Edinburgh Council); representatives from the Lothian & Borders Community Recycling Forum; Changeworks (formerly known as LEEP); representative from the Waste & Resources Action Programme; representative from Scottish Waste Awareness Group; Waste Strategy Area Coordinator (WSAC) for Lothian & Borders
SMART Action Task Teams
Small teams of individuals form at regular intervals to deliver SMART actions and then disband following their completion.
