North East Area Waste Plan

The Area Waste Plans are being developed in an environment where other areas of policy development, legislation and initiatives are likely to influence, or be influenced by, the National Waste Plan. During its implementation the National Waste Strategy: Scotland seeks to integrate its activities with the policies, legislation and initiatives described in the following sections. These fall under three categories, namely:

1. Waste Management related Policies, Legislation and Initiatives

2. General Policies, Legislation and Initiatives – of direct relevance to waste management

3. Other Policies, Legislation and Initiatives – of indirect relevance to waste management.

Awareness, Education and Cultural Change Programme
The Waste Aware Scotland Team (WAST) was established by SEPA to create a more positive waste culture in Scotland, using a waste education and awareness programme based on best practice from Scotland and around the world. Its specific aims are to establish a strategic framework for education and awareness initiatives in support of the National Waste Strategy: Scotland and where appropriate to support, facilitate and assist in the implementation of these education and awareness initiatives. The team is chaired by a representative from SEPA and draws its members from local authorities, commerce and industry, the waste-management industry and consumer interests.

The process focus of the team will be on formal education, informal learning, professional education and training, public campaigns and information or advice services. The strategic behavioural and cultural change objectives of WAST will be achieved through a number of initiatives which will address all wastes including household, commercial and industrial. Initiatives already underway include the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG), which will plan and deliver a series of public awareness campaigns across Scotland as part of their Waste Aware Scotland programme to change public attitudes towards reduction, reuse and recycling.

Working closely with SEPA and WAST, SWAG is a resource for local authorities and the National Waste Strategy: Scotland to deliver local and national campaigns to the public through the Waste Strategy Area groups. SWAG has cross sector support from SEPA, local authorities, NGOs, recycling groups, consumer interests, private waste industry, Keep Scotland Beautiful, the media and the Scottish Executive, in particular their ‘Do a Little Change a Lot’ campaign.

SEPA’s Regulatory Policy
SEPA’s Regulatory Policy is aimed at meeting Objective 1 of Schedule 12 of the Environment Act 1995 and ensuring that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods that could harm the environment. SEPA’s Regulatory Policy therefore recognises the importance of ensuring that its regulatory functions are in line with the objectives of the National Waste Strategy process, and equally, that the Area Waste Plans are realistic concerning the contribution that regulation can make. There is also a need to ensure that each plan addresses forthcoming regulatory issues sufficiently. A full statement of SEPA’s Regulatory Policies will be prepared for inclusion in the National Plan.

SEPA Waste Minimisation Programme
SEPA’s Waste Minimisation Programme was launched in 1998 and became a permanent function in 2001. The overall aim is to demonstrate the benefits of waste minimisation to SEPA staff, commerce and industry. The programme works in partnership with external organisations to increase the amount of waste minimisation activity in Scotland by developing sector-based or geographical projects and links to SEPA’s own internal environmental policy and the National Waste Strategy Scotland. It also contributes to the promotion of domestic waste minimisation to householders through working alongside the Scottish Waste Awareness Group,

To date SEPA has helped over 500 companies to reduce their waste through low cost measures through the external partnership network. This now equates to an across-the-board cost saving amongst Scottish Businesses of at least £6 million through reductions in water use and emissions to land and air.

The programme seeks to provide a focal point for the dissemination of best practice in waste minimisation. A website (www.sepa.org.uk/wastemin) contains useful information on the benefits of waste minimisation, how to establish a waste minimisation programme, useful contacts and sources of help and listing of all the initiatives throughout Scotland. A practical video and leaflet is also available free of charge.

2 General Policies, Legislation and Initiatives
(of direct relevance to waste management)

Best Value
A duty of Best Value has been introduced to Scottish local government through the Local Government in Scotland Bill (introduced on 16 May 2002). Best Value means that local authorities will have to secure continuous improvement in the performance of all their functions. This improvement should be achieved while maintaining an appropriate balance between the quality of service delivered and cost of delivering the service. The intention is to embed a culture of quality and improvement in local government service delivery. Best Value is intended to focus local authorities on outcomes as well as the process, which may force them to ask themselves difficult questions - how should a service be delivered? How well do we deliver it? How well could others do it? How do we compare to others? This process requires a commitment to ongoing review and that an effective dialogue between local authorities, their staff and service users be created and maintained.

Whilst Best Value is a principle that can be applied widely across public sector services there are specific objectives in its application to waste management. These include aspects of collection, treatment and disposal of waste. The final structure and the necessary legislation for its application in Scotland are awaited. The services developed by local authorities as a result of the Area Waste Plans will be developed and managed as part of the Best Value regime.

Contaminated Land Issues
Area Waste Plans will address the management of contaminated soil arisings as part of the strategy for the management of non-MSWs. The majority of contaminated land issues will be addressed either through the Planning and Development Control procedures, Part IIA of the EPA 1990 (Local Authorities), or the Control of Pollution Act 1974 (enforced by SEPA).

Development Planning
The planning system guides the future development and use of land in the long-term public interest. The aim is to ensure that development and changes in land-use occur in suitable locations and are sustainable. The statutory development plan for an area consists of the structure and local plan:

Local Agenda 21 and Environmental Strategies
Whilst these plans are non-statutory, many local authorities will produce one or both. Local Agenda 21 strategies (LA21) arose out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and can be thought of as local plans for sustainable development. The government challenged all authorities to produce such a statement by December 2000. Community plans and LA21s are very similar in nature. Thus many LA21 strategies have been combined with community plans or are seen as complementary processes. However LA21 plans tend to be longer term, more global-to-local in approach and more radical than community plans.

Since the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) fresh impetus has been given to the LA21 process, which is now been termed 'Local Action 21' with a renewed focus on action.

Environmental strategies simply draw together local authority actions on environmental issues, from transport to purchasing, from waste management to environmental education and subsequently the Area Waste Plans form a key component of the Local Authorities sustainable development strategy.

Local Government Bill
The forthcoming Local Government Bill aims to provide a framework for the delivery of better, more responsive public services, giving councils more flexibility and responsibility to act within a sensible framework and to work in partnership with communities and other agencies.

The new powers will enable councils to act more flexibly and innovatively in promoting and improving the wellbeing of their area in partnership with communities and other agencies.

Councils will be required to facilitate a community planning process in their area and to consult and engage communities in that process. Other key public bodies, such as the NHS, local enterprise companies and police are under a statutory duty to participate in the community planning process. This is designed to promote more effective joint working between agencies in seeking to deliver the services people want. The emphasis should be on the needs of service users and the effective engagement of communities in the decisions that affect them.

A statutory duty of Best Value is to be placed on local authorities to pursue continuous improvement in performance in a way that maintains an appropriate balance between quality and cost.

The Bill will also be used as a vehicle for progressing a small number of miscellaneous provisions that relate to the role of local authorities, including a duty to prepare Integrated Waste Management plans to replace the current recycling plans. Integrated Waste Management Plans will include targets for individual local authorities to achieve as their contribution to their Area Waste Plan and the National Waste Plan.

Public Private Partnership (PPP)
One aim of government policy is to promote constructive working partnerships between the public and private sectors.

Using private capital and expertise in the provision of public infrastructure is not new. Joint working between the public and private sectors, in fields such as housing, economic development and regeneration, transport and municipal enterprises, has achieved a great deal over the years. The government is keen to build on this success, by extending successful approaches to delivering good value for money, and by developing new ones and PPP is one route by which Local Authorities may procure and fund the long-term integrated waste management required to meet the Area Waste Plan objectives.

Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
PPPs are about establishing arrangements, often using a legally binding contract that will bring benefits to both sectors. Such arrangements can include contractual relationships, management buy outs, externalisation of operational management and use of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The PFI is a mechanism for improving value for money in partnership with the private sector and is often applied to large capital projects such as roads, hospitals, schools and prisons. The PFI has also been applied to a range of waste management facilities.

The costs of the various waste-management options for MSW highlighted elsewhere in the plan indicate that there may be a need to explore PPPs to deliver certain aspects of the infrastructure and services required. It will be for individual councils to decide on the form that these arrangements take. The Scottish Executive have made clear that to secure any funding from the Strategic Waste Fund, all projects must accord with the local Area Waste Plan, irrespective of whether they are financed using PPP, PFI or other traditional methods of financing.

Renewables Obligation (Scotland)
The Scottish Executive has set out a policy on renewable energy, which aims to stimulate further the development of the renewable energy industry in Scotland. The Scottish Executive’s objective is that by 2010 18% of electricity supplied in Scotland should be renewable energy, in other words generated from a renewable resource. The policy has five key aims:

In line with the objective and aims, Renewables Obligation (Scotland) (ROS) obliges all licensed electricity suppliers in Scotland to demonstrate that they have supplied a specified proportion of electricity from renewable sources. This specified proportion will increase each year to help achieve the objective of 18% of electricity supplied from renewable sources by 2010.

The key renewable energy technologies include wind and wave power, solar energy, bio-mass production and energy from waste. The specific approach that the ROS takes on energy from waste as a renewable energy source is as follows:

Electricity generation from waste treatment is eligible under 2 categories, providing minimal content of fossil fuel-derived waste.

(a) Generation from Biomass
Electricity that is generated directly from treatment of biomass is eligible under the order. Biomass, defined as above, must be verified to be contaminant free to at least 98% of it's energy content as measured by monthly sampling.

(b) Mixed Waste Generation
Electricity generation from mixed waste treatment is not directly eligible under the 2002 order. However, electricity that is generated from the liquid or gaseous product/s of an advanced conversion technology, where it is applied to mixed waste, is eligible under the order. The order defines an advanced conversion technology as ‘Gasification, pyrolysis or anaerobic digestion, or any combination thereof’.

3 Other Policies, Legislation and Initiatives
(of indirect relevance to waste management)

Community Planning
This arose from the perception that public sector planning was fragmented and poorly co-ordinated at a local level, leading to duplication, waste and confusion. Hence since 1999, with councils taking a lead, organisations as diverse as Health Boards, LECs, Scottish Homes, SEPA, the police authority and Scottish Natural Heritage have come together to plan the future of the local area. These community plans are being finalised and should contain: a vision for the future of the area, an analysis of the main issues, an audit of current activities, an action plan for change, and a review mechanism. Community plans can cover strategic issues and also be subdivided to tackle very local issues such as traffic, noise, graffiti and green space. As such, community plans offer an important means to have policies endorsed by a very wide range of actors and stakeholders. The completed Area Waste Plans will provide useful input to local authority community plans.

Corporate Plans (Strategic Plans)
Most local authorities produce a corporate plan to cover either following year or three years. These are key documents as they translate the manifestos of the parties into policies and set out commitments on emerging government initiatives. Corporate plans usually present an analysis of the council position (with respect to demographics, economy, social issues, environmental issues, etc) and the key policies and actions it intends to undertake. It may also contain an explanation of the internal processes of the council that are intended to implement the corporate plan. It is likely that local authority Corporate Plans will make reference to the agreed AWP.

Economic Development Strategies
Most local authorities have economic development teams and will therefore produce strategies and action plans setting out what these teams intend to achieve. This will often be in addition to any Local Enterprise Company (LEC) Economic Development Strategy they are supporting. Typical issues covered include company support, trade development, company development, training and New Deal programs, physical enhancement, infrastructure improvements, tourism, links to social inclusion work and, in some cases, environmental issues. The completed AWPs, as agreed, may be used to inform the development of local authority economic development strategies.

Education Department Plans
A wide variety of plans are required in Education Departments, including curriculum development plans and school development plans. A recent innovation is the need to produce Community Learning Strategies and Community Learning plans to support the new Community Plans. Community learning seeks to involve the Community Education function and other key learning institutions in meeting key learning needs arising from other strategies. For example, the economic development strategy might identify a need for greater IT skills, which the Community Learning Strategy might try to address. Some education departments may also have environmental education plans. Area Waste Plans typically have a significant public education and awareness component and the implementation of this may influence the development of local Community Learning Plans.

Housing Plans and Housing Management Plans
These are statements by Housing Department of the range and type of housing required for their area over a 3 or 5-year period, and the investment required to meet that need. Housing types cover both standard (council) housing and special needs housing. Housing Management Plans cover the service provided by the local authority: repairs and maintenance, estate management, tenant participation etc. Housing Management Plans may influence the nature of any future changes to the current household waste collection systems, required by the AWP.

Local Air Quality Plans
The Environment Act 1995 requires local authorities to review their area and determine possible breaches that may occur to the National Air Quality strategy objectives for key pollutants. Local authorities that identify areas likely to breach these standards must produce a strategy to return the area to compliance, using mechanisms such as controls on development, low emission zones, traffic restrictions etc. Future waste-management facilities and arrangements proposed by the completed AWPs may have an impact on local air quality and the AWP proposals should be taken into account as part of the local air-quality plans.

Local Biodiversity Action Plans
Another plan to arise from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, these plans seek to implement at a local level the UK government’s national Biodiversity Action Plans. Typically, a Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) will follow a defined process: an audit of existing flora, fauna and habitats, a prioritisation of these against key international, national and local criteria, followed by the development of action plans for the key species. Where they exist, LBAPs may inform the site location considerations for specific facilities required by the AWP.

Local Transport Strategies
Local transport strategies are designed to bring together all the transport issues for the local authority area. They combine the statutory requirements of the Road Traffic Reduction Act and Road Safety Plans with analysis of the existing pattern of transport and traffic. They usually include plans for new roads and road improvements, bus, cycling, walking and rail projects and are a useful source of transport statistics. They may, and should, be linked to local air-quality and planning strategies. The completed Area Waste Plans may be used to inform the development of local transport strategies, particularly where new centralised waste-processing facilities are planned.

Other Local Authority Corporate Policies
Local authority Chief Executives or Corporate Services Departments typically produce a wide range of other policies. These cover plans for both urban regeneration, closely linked to social inclusion, and rural regeneration, sometimes called Rural Development. Typically these plans use ring-fenced government money, together with Structural Funds, to promote community social and economic programmes such as training, community transport, credit unions, physical enhancements, etc. Elements of the agreed AWPs may be of relevance for inclusion in these Corporate Plans, where they impact regeneration and social inclusion.