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28% recycling announced at Waste Summit
SEPA’s latest waste data shows that Scotland has achieved a recycling rate of over 28%, with the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill down to 1.4 million tonnes and annual waste growth reduced to 1%.
Scotland’s recent recycling progress was announced by Mr Lochhead MSP at a Waste Summit in Edinburgh, in which he lead a debate on options available to move Scotland towards a zero waste society. There was broad support for zero waste, and was deemed to be fully compatible with the pressing need to improve recycling services and to deliver increased residual waste treatment infrastructure – particularly EfW.
A number of presentations were delivered at the Waste Summit, one which noted the experiences from Bavaria as it made the transition from landfill to EfW without detrimentally impacting upon rates of recycling. A second presentation noted instances across the world where direct charging had provided a successful financial incentive for tackling household waste.
Whilst SESA supported moves towards a zero waste agenda it called for a full consultation on the merits of direct charging of household waste a means of achieving this goal. However, zero waste should remain an aspirational target and should not detract from the delivery of waste management services and infrastructure.
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