This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Way forward for recycling
14/03/2007
Provisional funding to double Scotland's current recycling rate and reduce reliance on landfill was announced today.
The money will allow treatment of just over one million tonnes of residual waste by 2020 and will cost the Executive £48 million per year at current prices. Residual waste is the fraction of waste left once all efforts have been taken to reduce, recycle or compost.
Environment Minister Ross Finnie said:
"Scotland now recycles or composts almost 25 per cent of its waste. We are currently working with councils and others to find ways of improving recycling and composting services. We are also looking at innovative ways to prevent waste in the first place. We remain committed to achieving recycling or composting 30 per cent of municipal waste by 2008 and 55 per cent by 2020.
"We also need to establish additional waste treatment facilities to meet European Landfill Directive targets. We have concluded that 1,140,000 tonnes of capacity will be required by 2020, which will cost the Executive £48 million a year at current prices.
"We need to learn to live within our environmental means and reduce our reliance on landfill. In assessing bids for funding under the Strategic Waste Fund, we will scrutinise very closely the proposals that come forward from groups of local authorities to ensure they meet the stringent requirements of the National Waste Plan."
The first tranche of funding, pending final Ministerial approval, will go to the group of City of Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders Councils and to North and South Lanarkshire Councils.
The Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders Group will receive £12.6 million a year to treat 300,000 tonnes of residual waste. North and South Lanarkshire Councils will receive £8.4 million a year for treating 200,000 tonnes of residual waste.
Other groups of local authorities are working jointly to develop more detailed proposals for residual waste treatment in order to reach the necessary economies of scale for value for money to be achieved.
Today's announcement re-affirms Ministers' commitment to the waste hierarchy, which promotes reducing and re-using resources so that less waste is created. Recycling is next in the hierarchy, followed by recovery of embedded energy, with disposal (commonly via landfill) at the bottom of the hierarchy.
For the 12 month period April 2005 to March 2006, Scotland recycled/composted 24.4 per cent of its municipal waste. By 2020 this percentage will need to increase to 55 per cent, with 50 per cent of recyclate being derived from either kerbside collections or recycling centres and points and five per cent coming from recyclate from waste treatment facilities.
The Executive remains fully committed to reducing the waste produced by both households and businesses, as outlined in the Household Waste Prevention Action Plan and the Business Waste Framework.
The residual waste treatment facilities to be established, along with waste prevention and increased recycling, will divert biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill. Biodegradable waste is material that degrades in landfills and produces greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Following the EU Landfill Directive, Scotland has to limit the amount of BMW sent to landfill to the following amounts:
- 1.32 million tonnes of BMW in 2010
- 0.88 million tonnes of BMW in 2013; and
- 0.62 million tonnes of BMW in 2020
Currently, Scotland landfills around 1.5 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste a year.
The Strategic Outline Cases (SOCs) that have been submitted by six local authority Strategic Option Review Groups (SORGs) have been published on the Scottish Executive's website, with certain commercially sensitive information removed. 8. The more detailed Outline Business Cases (OBCs) will be published in due course, with certain commercially sensitive information removed, once they have been submitted in their final form.