5.4 Funding the Area Waste Plan

Considerable resources, both capital and revenue, will be required to implement the AWP Action Plan, and provide the required waste-management infrastructure to deliver BPEO in Orkney and Shetland.

Funding of the necessary investment for new waste-management infrastructure and operations may be obtained in a number of different ways, including private finance, through a PPP or PFI arrangement (refer to Annex 3), or traditional direct funding by the local authority. The Scottish Executive has established the Strategic Waste Fund (SWF) to allow specific grants to be paid to local authorities to assist with additional costs to meet the requirements of the Area Waste Plan (refer to SWF Guidance available from the Scottish Executive, contact details in Annex 5). Additional funding may also be available in some cases from other sources, e.g. landfill tax credits, New Opportunities Fund "Transforming Waste", EU structural funds and the sale of packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs).

Further information is available on the web site: http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/funding/index.htm

The development of AWPs will inevitably result in an increase in the cost of waste management in Scotland. These costs will ultimately have to be borne by the producers of waste (the "polluter pays" principle). This poses a number of challenges as to how these costs are met and will require further detailed consideration over the next few years.