Viridor’s call for funds comes as Scottish councils weigh up whether to sign up to the Household Recycling Charter, which promotes a consistent recycling system for Scottish households, launched in December 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Charter, a joint initiative by Scottish Government and the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities’ (CoSLA) Zero Waste Taskforce, advocates a three-stream recycling system. This would see one container for glass, one container for paper and card, and one for metals and plastics, along with the existing food waste and residual collections.
The long-term intention of the scheme is to also eventually move to a common colour system.
Viridor has today called for development of a ‘Scottish Resource Networks Innovation Fund’ to allow councils to bid for finance to meet the aims of the Charter as well as setting of mandatory common standards for collections by councils.
Value
In a post on the company’s website, Viridor’s head of public affairs, Martin Grey, said: “Scotland’s resource systems were designed for a bygone age where ‘hump and dump’ landfill was designed for disposal. The economic and environmental value of resources is now better understood.
“But why are collections, contracts and resource infrastructure still based on arbitrary political and geographic local authority boundaries? The result is disaggregated collection, recycling and recovery infrastructure, with varying performance and a sector at a point of inflexion.
“Scotland has an opportunity to recognise the economic value of resources, linking collections and investment in green infrastructure with the needs of the next generation of Scottish business in a circular economy. We need a new resource management system that is fit for purpose, an integrated system of Scottish Resource Networks.”
Elsewhere the company has also called for funding through CoSLA and the Scottish Cities Alliance on the viability of new collection authorities able to take advantage of size and scale as well as the creation of a Scottish Resource Council (a Scottish OfRes) to strengthen the Government’s ability to respond strategically to resource supply threats.
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