National Consultation for Waste from Business and Public Sector Organisations in Scotland

The National Waste Plan concentrates largely on household waste. It is, however, recognised that there is a need to look at waste from business, which constitutes around 80% of Scotland’s Controlled Waste.

The Scottish Executive and SEPA, working with the Business Waste Working Group , prepared a Consultation Paper on issues relating to the management of wastes from business and public sector organisations. The consultation ran from August – December 2005. 

In total there were 68 responses to the consultation. The Scottish Executive and SEPA analysed the responses and prepared a summary of findings. In April 2006 the consultation summary was approved by the Minister for Environment and Rural Development and by the Committee for Environment and Rural Affairs.  

In July 2006, the Business Waste Working Group attended a workshop session to review and comment on a range of proposed actions under seven headings:

• Data;
• SME Collections;
• Planning and Infrastructure;
• Regulation and Targets;
• Business Support;
• Market Development; and
• Communications.

SEPA and the Scottish Executive then jointly developed The Business Waste Framework and an Action Plan. Following approval by the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, the documents were published on the Scottish Executive’s website on 13 March 2007.

The Action Plan will be reviewed on a six monthly basis at a meeting with the National Business Waste Working Group when both progress and updates to the Plan will be discussed.

To view the document you are interested in please use the following links:

The Background Paper (230k pdf) provides additional detail and supporting information for some of the issues raised in the Consultation Paper.

The consultation paper can be accessed here.

The summary of responses can be accessed here

The Framework and Action Plan can be viewed here.