Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead has announced plans to host a “waste summit” to look at ways to improve recycling rates.
New quarterly figures issued by SEPA on Friday revealed that in the 12 months up to December 2006, Scotland recycled an average of 27.1% of household waste – up from 23.3% in the calendar year 2005.
This effectively meets the 25% national target for 2006, the Scottish Government said.
However, the new Scottish National Party administration that took over after the May election has said it is aspiring to a “zero waste” goal for Scotland (see letsrecycle.com story). The waste summit to be held on October 3 will therefore pave the way for existing targets to be made more “ambitious”.
The summit could also see the concept of “zero waste” discussed, which could have an important bearing on how local authorities seek to treat residual waste.
“Onwards and upwards”
Announcing the summit, Mr Lochhead said: “We want to push onwards and upwards. We aspire to a zero waste Scotland and are currently looking at ways in which we can make our recycling targets even more ambitious. We want to ensure all relevant parties – including local authorities – have a chance to contribute to how we further improve on recycling.”
The new figures from SEPA also show that Scotland's target of sending no more than 1.5 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill has been met – 1,476,900 tonnes was sent to landfill in 2006, down from 1,578,232 in 2005.
We aspire to a zero waste Scotland and are currently looking at ways in which we can make our recycling targets even more ambitious.
Richard Lochhead
The total municipal waste arisings – including non-biodegradable material – have also fell from 3,438,311 in 2005 to 3,385,365 in 2006.
Commenting on the figures, SEPA director of environmental and organisational strategy Calum MacDonald said: “People are clearly recognising how important it is to deal with our waste more sustainably and are doing something about it. This is encouraging news. A successful Scotland needs a healthy economy and a healthy society.”
Review
As the Scottish Government – the new name for the Scottish Executive – announced next month's waste summit, a review of environmental policy by government advisors revealed that while Scotland is “on track” with its National Waste Plan to deal with household waste, waste from the commercial sector poses a “particular concern”.
The Sustainable Development Commission – the group led by Friends of the Earth founder Sir Jonathan Porritt – said Scotland's overall production of waste and the amount of material beint sent to landfill continues to increase.
In a report published last week, the advisors welcomed the new government's aspiration to head towards a “zero waste” economy. It said there had been a significant rise in domestic recycling in recent years, but warned that even the existing 55% household waste recycling target by 2020 will require more action to be met.
Business waste
Concerning the commercial and industrial sector, including construction and demolition arisings the report said 16 million tonnes of waste is produced in Scotland every year, “dwarfing the three million tonnes produced domestically”.
It criticised government policies for their “focus on priority industries rather than coordinating action across the whole economy”. Enterprise networks would have an “important part to play in helping business address waste production”, the Commission recommended.
Commenting on the role of energy-from-waste, the report states: “There is a clear role for energy from waste but it has to be the final element of any sustainable approach, with the priority being waste minimisation, then re-use, then recycling.”
The Commission called on the new Scottish Government to set a “clear strategy aimed at moving Scotland incrementally toward zero waste with an emphasis on waste reduction as the basis of the strategy.”
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