On 20 August 2009 the Scottish Government launched a consultation on a “Zero Waste” plan for Scotland. The consultation is open for responses until 13 November 2009 and identifies key issues. These include establishing targets on prevention, reuse, recycling and composting, setting caps on energy from waste and landfill, improving waste data, better waste regulation, extending producer responsibility obligations, land-use planning for waste management and the possible implementation of further landfill bans.
“Zero Waste” is expressed as eliminating the unnecessary use of raw materials, waste prevention, re-using products where possible, recovering value from products at end of life, building sustainable design into products and general resource efficiency.
The consultation is cited as an opportunity to influence the longer-term direction of waste policy in Scotland and should be of interest to a broad spectrum of businesses. Given reduction of greenhouse gas targets in the Climate Change Act 2008 and Scotland’s ambitious targets in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (the “Act”), it is likely that the waste related policies being considered in this consultation will also be scrutinised carefully for the rest of the UK.
Key proposals in the Consultation
Waste disposal
“Zero Waste” includes reducing the reliance on landfill to a minimum. In this context a target is proposed of no more than 5% of municipal waste to be landfilled by 2025 and a reduction in commercial and industrial (“C&I”) waste sent to landfill by 150,000 tonnes per annum.
Waste prevention
The Scottish Government is focusing on a variety of initiatives to prevent waste such as: the reduction in the amount of waste generally, re-use of waste, the extension of the lifespan of products and widening the scope of products banned from landfills.
For municipal waste it is queried whether separate targets should be set for “no growth” by 2010 and beyond and to reduce municipal waste by 1% per annum. In respect of C&I waste and construction and demolition (“C&D”) waste it is suggested that national targets be established once data is improved.
For C&I waste, tailored programmes of work for waste prevention, minimisation, re-use and recycling in relation to key priority materials and sectors are to be developed for the final version of the plan to include paper, metal, plastic, glass, food waste and waste oils. Proposed priority sectors include retail and wholesale, finance, public, food and drink, hotels, chemicals, transport and energy. In addition, analysis of existing recycling activity of commercial waste will also be commissioned.
Measures to reduce the amount of waste include cutting down on packaging, encouraging food waste to be processed through home composting and employing efforts to prevent unwanted mail. References to establishing national targets for specific sectors and waste stream targets are made whilst methods of extending the life span of products are being considered.
Following reference to a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010, views are sought on opportunities that might be created if Scotland had fiscal autonomy and the power to impose higher landfill taxes (such fiscal measures are reserved for the UK government).
Mention is also made of the forthcoming Sustainable Procurement Action Plan to stimulate market demand for recyclate.
Recycling waste
It is proposed that a target of 70% of municipal waste be recycled by 2025. This amounts to around 2.4 million tonnes.
The documentation identifies that this, in conjunction with other targets, means that infrastructure will be required to treat most of the 7.4 million tonnes currently disposed of via landfill. Recycling centres, transfer stations, material recovery facilities (to process dry recyclates), composting facilities and anaerobic digestion facilities will need to be built as there is currently a lack of infrastructure in Scotland to achieve the target. The consultation documentation makes a particular recommendation that greater emphasis should also be placed on separate biowaste collection and its composing and digestion, due to this waste’s current very heavy reliance on landfill.
To achieve the objective, waste will need to be reprocessed into new products, materials or substances, whether for their original or other purposes. Separate collection at home, work and public places must be made easier in order to reduce amount sent to landfill. There are provisions in the Act for regulations requiring recycling facilities to be provided in public places and further work on this point is anticipated.
Other provisions enabling regulations for plans in relation to the recycling (amongst other activities) of waste are being considered including the possibility of statutory site waste management plans for construction. In the meantime, the preparation of such plans on a voluntary basis is encouraged.
An annex to the consultation states that residential, commercial and industrial properties should be designed to provide for waste separation and collection. The Scottish Government considers that Scotland should arrange separate collections of waste where technically environmentally and economically practicable to meet the necessary quality standards for the relevant recycling sectors for all waste.
More onerous obligations on the producers of commercial waste to collect a proportion of their waste for recycling and recovery are also being mooted.
Energy from waste - To be capped
By 2025 the aim is that no more than 25% of municipal waste will be treated by energy from waste facilities (no more than 850,000 tonnes). The cap will not extend to other forms of treatment infrastructure taking mixed waste for example mechanical biological treatment, mechanical heat treatment and anaerobic digestion.
Energy from waste is to be seen as a last resort, after all other efforts have been made to manage waste. Further the prospect of single stream waste material for combustion will be evaluated with plants being designed or operated to take single stream waste material. The consultation document expects that most of the opportunities for EfW plants taking single stream material will occur in relation to C&I waste but queries whether the 25% cap should apply to any single stream municipal waste taken by these plants
Measuring progress
Progress towards “Zero Waste” will be measured in terms of tonnes of waste but it is queried whether other ways of measuring progress should be used. This links into the idea raised by the UK’s recent packaging strategy of measuring, that in the future waste reduction targets should be set by reference to carbon rather than by weight.
Improving data
Whilst data on municipal waste is collected from local authorities the consumption of such waste is not recorded. The Scottish Government considers that the compositional analysis of municipal waste should be undertaken routinely.
With regard to C&I waste, data can be unreliable. One of the measures identified as capable of improving the available data is the application of provisions in the Act which allow Scottish Ministers to make regulations requiring waste producers to complete returns on the amount of waste produced. The consultation identifies that returns could be required from larger businesses. A consultation on draft regulations in expected in 2010.
Waste regulation and enforcement
The consultation recognises that this may present an opportunity to conduct work on standards to identify exactly when a recovered or recycled waste ceases to be waste. This has been a running sore within the waste industry ever since the EU definition of waste came into existence.
Land use planning
The transition to Zero Waste will require more and different waste facilities. The need for improvements in the planning system and further research on capacity planning for waste infrastructure is noted. The Scottish Government states that planners must see waste as a resource and development plans must take account of infrastructure required to treat commercial, industrial, construction and demolition waste in addition to municipal waste.
Producer responsibility
The extension of producer responsibility obligations to materials such as paints, solvents, household furniture and mattresses is mentioned.
Landfill bans
Work has been commissioned on extending landfill bans to further materials. The research is due to be published later in 2009.
Projected benefits of the plan:
These include:
- Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions due to better waste management and reduction in overall volume of waste.
- Increase in business opportunities in areas such as sustainable design, infrastructure, resource efficiency and reprocessing.
- Economic and social benefits, as employment opportunities rise.
Next Steps
Following the consultation, the final version of the Zero Waste Plan will be published in 2010. It is intended that the Scottish Government will monitor the implementation of the plan through the publication of an annual report detailing progress.
Further reading
For access to the full consultation documentation, click here
