Podcast transcript: Sustainable waste management report

This is Anne McCubbin here to talk with John Lincoln, Mark Diffley and Kirsty Whyte about our Sustainable waste management report.

Mark, what’s this report about?

Scotland needs to deal with its waste in a more environmentally friendly way. This means that we need to have less reliance on landfill and send a greater proportion of our waste for recycling and composting. our report looks at the work of councils, the Scottish Government (formerly the Scottish Executive) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in progressing towards this goal.

Kirsty, what are your key findings?

Recycling rates have increased significantly in recent years. More people than ever before are participating and we now recycle more than a quarter of our waste. It’s important that people keep recycling as to meet EU landfill targets Scotland has to radically reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. In addition to increasing recycling, facilities to treat waste that isn’t recycled will also be required. We found that there is a significant risk that these future EU targets may not be met due to slow progress in developing these facilities. Urgent decisions need to be taken as to how we reduce the waste going to landfill.

There’s been a lot of media and public interest in two areas in particular: fortnightly waste collections and incinerators. So, Kirsty, what did you find out about fortnightly waste collections?

Every household in Scotland receives a weekly waste collection but in over half of councils not all household waste is collected every week. This means for some people the waste that isn’t recycled or composted is collected every second week. There is some evidence that this encourages people to recycle more although the issue is controversial in Scotland. It is up to councils to decide how best to maximise recycling in their area and what waste collection arrangements are most suitable for that area.

And, John, what were your findings on incinerators?

There are a number of options for dealing with waste that isn’t recycled and energy from waste plants are one of those options. What they do is produce electricity and heat through the burning of waste. It’s not quite the same as what people used to think of as incinerators in terms of producing lots of pollution and smoke. The newer generation of incinerators have to meet strict environmental standards. Many countries in Europe already have successfully reduced the amount of waste through facilities such as energy from waste plants. And in Scotland there are two of these plants, one in Dundee and one in Shetland. Now the location of such facilities and the number that we have really depends on the Scottish Government and councils, and also ourselves to a large extent because of how much waste we produce. No formal announcements have been made yet about how many such facilities we need, or their location.

What does the public need to do?

First of all, the public needs to continue the good work in recycling. The Scottish public have done very well so far in increasing recycling and need to do as much as they can in future. That means continuing to use bottle banks, going to recycling points and so on. But also what they can do to help is reduce the amount of waste produced. So when going to the supermarket and other shops it’s important to just shop for what you need and not buy extra goods that need to be thrown out. By producing less waste that will help the council and the environment and it’s also good because it means you’ll save money.

Mark, in terms of the council and the Government, what needs to happen next?

We make a number of recommendations in the report, aimed at the Scottish Government and councils. These recommendations are designed to help Scotland meet the forthcoming European Landfill Directive targets and to generally develop a more sustainable approach to waste management. 

The main recommendations are that as a matter of some urgency the Government and councils need to work together to reach a decision on the facilities that are required for treating waste that isn’t recycled. Secondly, the Government needs to work in partnership with councils, SEPA and other agencies to ensure the effective procurement of these facilities. Thirdly, councils need to carry out Best Value reviews of the recycling systems that they have in place at the moment to ensure greater consistency and value for money. We feel that having 67 recycling systems in operation, as is currently happening, is too many. Councils need to look to rationalise these systems. They need to look at their kerbside recycling to identify the most cost effective systems and perhaps look at standardising the types of containers they have in place for recycling at the moment.

Mark, John and Kirsty, thanks very much.