Key Acronyms
(terms, abbreviations and references most frequently used)

AWP - Area Waste Plan
Each of the 11 Waste Strategy Area Group's are responsible for producing a detailed Area Waste Plan for their area. The plans provide a strategic framework for the management of waste in each area based on National Waste Strategy: Scotland principles. The initial focus of the plans is MSW, with other wastes being addressed in more detail in subsequent years.

BMW - Biodegradable Municipal Waste
Solid waste collected by Local Authorities that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food or garden waste and paper and cardboard, i.e. waste that rots. This is generally accepted to be 60% of MSW.

BPEO - Best Practicable Environmental Option
BPEO is the outcome of a systematic and consultative decision-making procedure, which emphasises the protection, and conservation of the environment across land, air and water. The BPEO procedure establishes, for a given set of objectives, the optimal mix of waste management techniques that provides the most benefit and least damage to the environment, local communities and the economy, at acceptable cost, in the short and long term (20 years)

MSW - Municipal Solid Waste
Household waste and any other similar waste collected by the local authorities or agents acting on their behalf (for the purposes of this Plan, the definition excludes all industrial wastes, agricultural wastes, and construction and demolition wastes, as well as clinical and special wastes not managed by the local authority).

Non-MSW - Non-Municipal Solid Wastes
Other solid wastes subject to regulatory control but over which the local authority does not have statutory control (for the purposes of this plan this includes the industrial and construction and demolition wastes collected by the local authority, and other locally important wastes not yet subject to regulatory control, e.g. agricultural waste)

WSAG - Waste Strategy Area Group
A key component of the National Waste Strategy: Scotland was the establishment of 11 WSAGs across Scotland. The groups are designed to ensure cross-sector participation in local decision-making and are tasked with making the national strategy a reality at the local level. Membership of the Orkney and Shetland WSAGs is as follows: