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Reducing Landfill: A Landfill Allowance Scheme Consultation

6 MONITORING THE SCHEME

6.1 The landfill allowance scheme should encourage the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill in the most efficient way. In order for the scheme to work properly, for people to have confidence in it and to ensure that local authorities are being treated equitably and landfilling in line with their allowances, the scheme must be monitored effectively. Section 7 of the WET Act includes provisions for monitoring the scheme. This will also ensure that the UK is able to provide the Commission with evidence of its compliance with the requirements of the Landfill Directive. It is imperative that the UK Government is able to demonstrate to the Commission that the UK as a whole has met, and continues to meet, its EC targets for BMW diversion in 2010, 2013 and 2020. This will protect Scotland and the UK from the possibility of infraction proceedings.

6.2 In particular it is necessary to monitor the scheme to ensure that:

the amount of BMW sent to landfill is accurately recorded against the allowances of each local authority;

• all diverted waste (e.g. that including glass) is not recorded as biodegradable;
• the treatment of waste prior to landfill and the subsequent reduction in biodegradable content is accurately recorded; and,
• the relative success of individual local authorities in diverting BMW from landfill are recognised.

6.3 The Executive proposes that the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) should be the monitoring authority for Scotland. SEPA already has duties within the waste remit such as data collection and research and is therefore best placed to monitor the scheme. SEPA advises the Scottish Executive on the development of new policies for protecting Scotland's environment.  Its main responsibilities are:

• Controlling pollution from waste management activities, including licensing storage and disposal of waste and regulating landfill sites.  The Executive works in partnership with SEPA and local authorities on strategies for minimising waste and promoting recycling.
• Regulating emissions from major industries such as power stations, foundries, incinerators and chemical works and other activities such as intensive pig and poultry farming, via the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regulations.
• Regulating installations using radioactive materials, e.g. nuclear power stations, oil rigs, hospitals and universities to prevent harm to the environment and human health.
• Regulating discharges to rivers, lochs, estuaries and coastal waters from sewage works, fish farms, septic tanks etc. SEPA also has broad duties for protecting and improving the water environment.

6.4 As mentioned in sections 4 and 5, the Executive also proposes that SEPA will register the trading, borrowing and banking of BMW allowances.

6.5 Monitoring will begin during the proposed pilot year, but it is not expected that all aspects of monitoring will be in place until the end of the pilot period. At the end of each scheme year there will be a 3 month reconciliation period in which monitoring data will be collected and assessed. The Executive proposes to allow local authorities to continue to bank, borrow and trade allowances relating to the previous year during this period. This will allow them to make decisions based on their actual performance for that year.

6.6 Information about the total number of allowances held by every local authority will be kept on a web-based register of allowances. This register will include information about the borrowing, banking and trading of allowances. SEPA will be responsible for ensuring that this register is kept up-to-date, although local authorities will be able to enter information directly to it.

6.7 Using this register, local authorities will be able to confirm their position throughout the year. SEPA will reconcile each local authority’s performance by checking the amount landfilled by each local authority against the amount of BMW allowance held on the register for that authority in that year.

6.8 It is proposed that SEPA shall fund the monitoring and administration of the scheme through the levy of a small charge (likely to be less than 5p) to local authorities for each tonne of landfill allowances issued.

THE MASS AND MATERIAL BALANCE APPROACH

6.9 The Executive proposes that the mass and materials balance approach be used to determine the tonnage of BMW landfilled. This approach will allow SEPA to calculate the amount of BMW that each local authority landfills with a high degree of confidence. It will also provide increased incentives for local authorities to separate out the biodegradable components of municipal waste (MW).

6.10 The mass balance approach assumes that the component of municipal waste that is biodegradable is constant. Therefore, if the weight of biodegradable materials diverted from landfill can be measured and if the proportion of biodegradable material that was in the waste to start with is known, it is possible to calculate the amount of BMW landfilled.

6.11 To determine the quantity of BMW landfilled using this approach, the following calculation needs to be made:

BMW %= the proportion of municipal waste (MW) that is biodegradable
MBT= Mechanical Biological Treatment

DETERMINING THE PROPORTION OF MW THAT IS BIODEGRADABLE

6.12 In order to carry out this calculation SEPA will need to know the biodegradable content of municipal waste. Current data cannot provide an individual figure for each local authority so SEPA uses an average figure for the whole of Scotland. The figure currently used is 63%¹¹.

6.13 As new information becomes available, the BMW figure SEPA will use in its calculations will become more accurate. Local authorities should be aware that any change from the 63% figure will affect the amount of waste that has to be diverted from landfill to stay in line with allowances. Local authorities need to ensure plans are sufficiently flexible to cope with these changes. Annex B gives more information about the mass and materials balance approach.

6.14 The agencies are looking at how to measure the level of BMW which is diverted to home composters.

Q20: Is 63% an appropriate figure to use as the proportion of biodegradable content in municipal waste?

Q21: If this figure can be shown to be different for some local authorities should the scheme allow them to use a different figure?

REPORTING TO SEPA

6.15 In order to be able to monitor the amount of BMW sent to landfill SEPA will need information both from local authorities and landfill site operators.

From Local Authorities (Section 12 of the WET Act)

a) the amount of municipal waste each local authority sends to landfill;

b) the amount of municipal waste and biodegradable waste that each local authority diverts away from landfill to other treatments such as recycling, composting and incineration. This should be broken down into appropriate components along with description of recovery/disposal activities used); and,

c) landfill site details.

As far as practical, the reporting will be consistent between the landfill allowance scheme and the Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey (LAWAS).

Landfill Site Operators (Section 13 of the WET Act)

In order to provide verification for the mass balance system, landfill site operators will be required to make an electronic return about municipal waste landfilled each year giving the following details:

1) the local authority that has collected the waste or if this information is not available the postcode of the waste’s origin;

2) a standard description of the waste and the European Waste Code;

3) the quantity; and,

4) what treatment, if any, was applied to the waste before it arrived at the landfill site.

Q22: Will the data collection and reporting process under a mass balance system represent a significant extra burden on local authorities? If so what are the likely additional annual costs?

Q23: Will the data collection and reporting process under a mass balance system represent a significant extra burden to landfill site operators? If so what are the likely additional annual costs?

TIMING FOR REPORTING MONITORING INFORMATION

6.16 The Executive proposes that local authorities provide SEPA with the above monitoring information on a quarterly basis, for quarters ending on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December. The information should be provided to SEPA no later than one calendar month after the end of the quarter to which it relates. It is proposed that the data collection for this monitoring shall take place as part of a developed Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey (LAWAS), with data capture on a computer based system. The SEPA officials responsible for the monitoring of the allowance scheme shall take data from the LAWAS system, and then perform additional verification to create the monitoring data for the allowance scheme.

6.17 It is proposed that landfill site operators provide SEPA with monitoring information on an annual basis. The information would have to be provided no later than one calendar month after the end of the scheme year.

Q24: Is it reasonable to require local authorities to provide this information within one month of the end of the quarter?

Q25: Is it reasonable to require landfill site operators to provide this information within one month of the end of the scheme year?

PREDICTING PERFORMANCE

6.18 The monitoring scheme will provide an excellent record of how each local authority has performed during the year. SEPA will also be required to provide the Executive with an assessment of the likely position for each local authority in future years. This should give an early warning of probable failure, allowing the Executive to take any necessary action to avoid Scotland and the UK not meeting targets.

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