1. Introduction and Context

1.1 Background

Waste management in Scotland is facing a period of rapid and radical change. Driven by European legislation, the need for improved environmental protection and public expectation, we must find ways of reducing our current dependence on landfill and moving towards more sustainable methods of managing waste and resources. We must also seek to reduce the growth in waste arisings, minimise resource use, reduce the hazardous content of waste and find waste management solutions that do not compromise the future. This is in line with the principle of sustainable development. This will require a fundamental change in our current attitude to waste and an acceptance that each of us has a responsibility to reduce waste and not simply to pass the responsibility to others.

In order to tackle these issues the National Waste Strategy: Scotland described a regional process of area waste planning that included the formation of 11 Waste Strategy Area Groups (WSAGs). The strategy was adopted by the Scottish Executive as the principal mechanism to develop sustainable waste management across Scotland. WSAGs were set up in both Orkney and Shetland in the summer of 2000. The independent work of the two groups has been fully integrated to formulate this plan, and continued joint working will provide a basis for the plan's future monitoring and delivery.

The Orkney and Shetland area has already made considerable headway in moving towards an integrated, sustainable waste management system for municipal solid waste (MSW). The area currently has Scotland's highest rate of MSW recycling and recovery, and is well respected for a high level of self-sufficiency in the production of a range of consumer goods (e.g. food products, clothing, etc). The area waste planning process has helped considerably to build on this track record in resource efficiency and focus future developments. In future the process will continue to encourage the cross-fertilisation of ideas between the two island groups.

The two local authorities have made major investments in a highly efficient district-heating scheme in Lerwick, fired by MSW, and this facility forms the cornerstone of the Area Waste Plan (AWP). The focus of future initiatives will be around simultaneously maximising the efficiency of this facility whilst preventing waste at source and increasing MSW recycling as far as practicable.

The Northern Isles are different to mainland Scotland in many ways, not least in terms of the issues facing future management of the area's waste. The area is geographically remote, and has a highly dispersed population, which creates a number of difficult waste management issues. The most pressing of these is economics, e.g. the costs of collecting segregated waste and accessing national markets for recyclate are extremely high, and the logistics particularly complex.

Given Orkney and Shetland's isolated location, self-sufficient waste management solutions are preferable - to minimise the economic and environmental costs incurred by transporting waste to the mainland. This approach should also encourage economic development by promoting the development of local business opportunities in waste recovery.