The Scottish Government

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Indicators of Sustainable Development for Scotland

Indicator 4. Waste: production

Municipal waste arisings in million tonnes of waste

Source: SEPA and Scottish Executive

Note: Data were not collected in 1995 and 1996 following transfer of responsibilities from The Scottish Office to SEPA.

The relevance of the indicator

Waste material represents a valuable resource. We need to reduce the amount of material we dispose of, and do more to minimise our waste, reuse it and recycle.

Detailed definition and source details

The indicator is defined as the amount of municipal solid waste collected by or on behalf of local authorities. In addition to household waste this includes any commercial and industrial waste collected by local authorities. Different methods have been used to collect the data over the years. Figures from 1989 to 1994 were extracted from Table A1.2 of the Scottish Office Bulletin for 1994. The 1997 and 1998 figures were taken from a study for SEPA and the Scottish Executive ¹¹. The 1999 data were estimated by SEPA using data available through the local Strategic Waste Management Baseline Assessment reports and by contacting the local authorities. Since 2000, data have been collected by SEPA. The 2000 data refer to financial year 2000-2001 and are provisional.

Trends

Since 1989, the amount of municipal solid waste arisings has varied between 2.9 million and 3.4 million tonnes per year. The latest estimate is 3.2 million tonnes in financial year 2000-2001. Data from other parts of the UK indicate that waste production has been rising at a rate of 2-3% per annum but this is not apparent from the Scottish data. It is not clear whether the Scottish data is reliable enough to assume that Scottish waste production is not also growing.

Further disaggregation

Further disaggregation of these figures is now possible through SEPA's annual survey of local authority waste management which is summarised in the annual Waste Data Digest¹².

Target

An initial target was suggested in the National Waste Strategy: Scotland in 1999¹² which was to aim to reduce municipal waste production by 1% per annum. We have reviewed this target in the light of the area waste planning process that has developed the forthcoming National Waste Plan. This involved detailed consideration of potential growth rates and the main factors which influence this (e.g. population, household size, and consumer behaviour). It is clear in the light of that, and of trends elsewhere in the UK, that there are no simple means of reducing waste growth and that measures by local authorities and others to reduce waste production, such as educational awareness programmes, will need to be sustained over many years. Accordingly the National Plan will set a revised target for municipal waste reduction of achieving zero growth by 2010. Depending on how quickly progress can be made to reduce waste growth, this should mean that no more than 3.5 million tonnes of municipal waste would be produced in 2010.

Action

We have established a Strategic Waste Fund to assist local authorities in implementing Area Waste Plans under the National Waste Strategy and have allocated 230m over the next 3 years (2003-04 to 2005-06) ¹². Eleven draft AWPs have been developed as part of the National Waste Strategy to determine the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) for dealing with waste in each area. All eleven AWPs have included some form of waste minimisation as part of the BPEO.

SEPA's waste data strategy is being implemented to provide a robust set of waste data on municipal and other wastes. This will inform future waste management planning and allow more accurate tracking of waste production.

We are also working with SEPA and the National Resource and Waste Forum ¹³ to plan a major waste prevention programme for municipal solid waste in Scotland.

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