The Scottish Government

Title

Amount of waste sent to landfill

National Indicator/Target

No more than 1.32 million tonnes of waste sent to landfill by 2010

Brief Description

The indicator is aiming to monitor the reduction in the amount of Biodegradable Municipal Waste ( BMW) Scotland sends to landfill in order to contribute to meeting UK targets set under the EU Landfill Directive.

The indicator is in line with the Government's commitment to move towards a Zero Waste Scotland.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

GREENER.

The indicator informs progress towards a Greener Scotland by capturing the sustainability of consumption through measuring the degree of waste going to landfill. Meeting the target will involve working with local authorities as they have discretion over their waste management.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

Waste as used in the indicator title and associated target is Biodegradable Municipal Waste.

Biodegradable Municipal Waste ( BMW) is municipal waste ( MSW) that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food, garden waste, paper and card.

Municipal Waste ( MSW) is all waste for which the councils make arrangements, with the exclusion of: abandoned vehicles; road maintenance waste; commercial waste that is delivered to local authority owned or run landfill sites where the local authority has no part in the collection or disposal arrangements that have led to this delivery; industrial waste collected from industrial premises and taken for disposal or treatment separately from any other waste; and construction and demolition waste that is collected and taken for disposal or treatment separately from any other waste. Bricks and rubble taken to civic amenity sites are included in municipal waste.

2010 refers to the 12 months ending June 2010.

Evidence Source

Data on the tonnage of MSW sent to landfill is supplied to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA) quarterly by local authorities via the internet based system Waste Data Flow ( WDF). Prior to this the data was collected via the annual SEPA Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey ( LAWAS) and quarterly via the Landfill Allowance Scheme ( LAS) Return and Landfill Allowance Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2005.

Baseline and Past Trends

The baseline year is financial year 2006/2007 when the amount of BMW sent to landfill was estimated to be 1.47 million tonnes. The below chart shows the progress made since 2001/2002 towards the 2010 target of 1.32 million tonnes.

Chart: Tonnes of Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) to landfill
Target - 1.32 million tonnes by June 2010, Baseline - 2006/7

Source: Scottish Environment Protection Agency 2001/02 -2003/04 Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey, 2004/05 - 2006/07 Quarterly Landfill Allowance Scheme Return, 2007/08 Waste data flow

Methodology

The amount of biodegradable waste that is landfilled is estimated using a mass balance approach. Full details are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/04/18110606/4

The first stage is to calculate the amount of MSW arisings that comprises biodegradable waste. The method assumes that the percentage of municipal waste that is biodegradable is 63% and this factor is applied to total MSW arisings.

The method then takes account of the amount of biodegradable waste that is recycled, composted, incinerated etc in order to provide an estimate of the amount that is landfilled.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

The data for this indicator is collected and published by SEPA. National Statistics status is being considered.

Publication of Data

The data is published quarterly on the SEPA website:

http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/data/returns.htm

This data is currently published 5 months after the end of the quarterly reporting period. Historic annual publications can also be found on the SEPA website:

http://www.sepa.org.uk/NWS/data/data_digest.htm

Revisions to the quarterly data are made within the same financial year.