Scotland today set out on the road to becoming a zero waste society with the launch of its Zero Waste Plan, a series of tough new targets and measures to capture the maximum value from different materials, to conserve finite resources and avoid landfill. The plan sets out key actions to tackle the near 20 million tonnes of waste produced by Scotland every year.
Containing a broader approach to tackle all waste — not just waste collected by councils — the Scottish Government's plan aims to drive change and inspire households, businesses, community groups, local authorities and the wider public sector to change the way they view and deal with waste. And it proposes a new way of looking at the materials Scotland produces, recognising everything designed, produced and used is a resource which has a value.
Radical new measures to be introduced include:
* Landfill bans for specific waste types, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and capturing their value.
* Separate collections of specific waste types, including food (to avoid contaminating other materials), to increase reuse and recycling opportunities and contributing to renewable energy targets.
* Two new targets that will apply to all waste: 70 per cent target recycled, and maximum five per cent sent to landfill, both by 2025.
* Restrictions on the input to all energy from waste facilities, in the past only applicable to municipal waste.
* Encouraging local authorities and the resource management sector to establish good practice commitments and work together to create consistent waste management services.
Finite resources
"Scotland is embarking on the zero waste journey to protect our environment and help our economy," said Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead. "We can't go on as business as usual because we can't afford to and because resources are finite.
"In recent years, the people of Scotland have made substantial progress in cutting waste but households, businesses and wider society still produces enough waste to fill an Olympic size swimming pool every ten minutes. Even when it come to food, every home on average throws out £430 worth every year. Six million tonnes of the waste we generates ends up in landfill."
He said: "Viewing waste as a resource opens many doors. Rather than carelessly discarding materials to landfill, we can create new products and generate renewable energy, heat and fertiliser while creating over 2000 jobs. The Zero Waste Plan will help deliver progressive landfill bans, with the end goal of no waste with reuse or recycling potential being landfilled by 2020."
