The Deputy Minister for
Environment and Rural Development (Allan Wilson):
Reflecting on Sarah
Boyack's informative speech, I think that it gives new meaning to Forrest
Gump's observation:
"Life's a box of chocolates ... You never know what you're gonna get"—
although one can be sure that it will be overwrapped.
I am pleased to speak in today's debate as my colleague Ross Finnie cannot
be here. I am sure that members will wish to know that the operation went
"as planned", as they say, and that Ross is recovering in the
high-dependency unit at Glasgow royal infirmary as we speak. [Applause.]
The national waste plan is our blueprint for improving Scotland's record on
sustainable waste management. It is supported by a wide range of
stakeholders. The practice of burying resources in landfill sites, to which
Sarah Boyack referred, is neither environmentally nor economically
sustainable. We want to move away from over-dependency on landfill. That is
good news for communities across Scotland.
We are working to put in place the infrastructure to reclaim and recycle
valuable resources. Achieving the targets in our national waste plan will
depend on a fundamental shift in public attitudes to waste. To help raise
awareness of the vital role the public can play in meeting those ambitious
targets—our policies on waste depend on public participation and support
across Scotland—I am pleased to announce today extra core funding for the
Scottish waste awareness group.
Our approach is based on partnership, notably with SEPA and with local
government. We are providing significant resources to local authorities, to
meet the targets that we and the EU have laid down. We expect local
authorities to work together to produce joint solutions and economies of
scale.
The targets are challenging. We are committed to recycling or composting 25
per cent of municipal solid waste by 2006 and 55 per cent by 2020.
Currently, we recycle about 7 per cent, so there is a substantial gap to be
plugged. We are also committed to reducing the land filling of biodegradable
municipal waste to 1.5 million tonnes per year by 2006, which is roughly 20
per cent down from the current level of around 1.85 million tonnes. In 2010,
2013 and 2020, the UK has to meet targets laid down by the EU landfill
directive.
For Scotland, that means reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal
waste going to landfill to 1.32 tonnes by 2010, 0.88 tonnes by 2013 and 0.62
tonnes by 2020.
Action to meet Scottish and EU waste targets directly benefits communities
across Scotland. The committee was rightly concerned about communities close
to landfill sites. Our aim is to move Scotland away from its excessive
dependency on landfill. Where landfill has to remain for the foreseeable
future, it will be better
regulated. Those aims will secure tangible benefits for communities.
Communities across Scotland can be reassured by the resources provided by
the Executive to meet our waste targets. We are providing £230 million to
local authorities over three years. So far, we have allocated more than £95
million to 23 local authorities. I hope to add to that number in the
immediate future.
Local authorities will soon be required to produce integrated waste
management plans to put the commitments that they are making to improve
sustainable waste management on to a statutory footing. We have just
consulted on establishing a landfill allowance scheme for local authorities
that will impose limits on the amount of waste that authorities can
landfill.
The Executive is taking legislative and administrative action and is
providing substantial resources to meet the challenges that we face.
However, as the committee recognises, action is required across a wide
variety of fronts. The Scottish Executive funds the Scottish waste awareness
group, which develops "waste aware" campaigns for local communities. That
fact that those campaigns are local is key. They are designed to coincide
with the provision of new recycling infrastructure. The advertising and
awareness is therefore linked to what is actually available in the area. I
am pleased to announce today that the Executive will be providing SWAG with
an additional £100,000 this financial year and £400,000 in each of the next
two financial years to help fund SWAG core services. That funding is subject
to our formally agreeing SWAG's business plan. We agree with the committee
about recognising the role of the community sector in relation to education
and awareness. As indicated in our response to the committee, the community
recycling network for Scotland is now formally represented on the SWAG
steering group. Getting the community sector to work to raise awareness is
an important part of raising public awareness more generally.
As well as addressing waste awareness, we are taking action in another key
area: the development of markets for recycled products. Good markets already
exist in many areas of Scotland and a virtuous circle is created between
recycled goods and securing a market for them—for example, there is a strong
market in Scotland for recycled glass. Work is taking place to achieve
higher value for recycled products. Glass can be used to filter water or to
replace sand in golf bunkers. We have announced funding for the Waste and
Resources Action Programme, which is a UK body, and for Remade Scotland. We
are also preparing a market development plan, which will lay down
priorities, ensure that WRAP and Remade work effectively together, and
consider whether consortia should be formed by local authorities and others
to sell recycled products. The plan will also ensure that the enterprise
networks are fully engaged in the process, to stimulate business growth in
that market and to create employment—green jobs, if you like — in the
sector. We will consult widely with everyone in the chamber and beyond about
how best to achieve those aims.
The committee welcomes the work that the Executive is undertaking but it
points out that more needs to be done, particularly on non-municipal waste.
Sarah Boyack mentioned that again today and we agree that we must tackle
that waste stream; three quarters of Scotland's waste is non-municipal.
Action is being taken in that area; SEPA has led several waste stream
projects that have collected waste data from specific industrial sectors and
those projects will lead to recommendations on how to deal with the
non-municipal waste stream.
As we outlined in some detail in our response to the committee, we and SEPA
will publish, by the middle of this year, a framework on how we intend to
deal with non-municipal waste in general.
Our response to the committee also mentions targets on packaging waste and
the planned extra resources for the business environment partnership and the
north-east Scotland business waste minimisation partnership. I urge
businesses throughout Scotland to use the waste minimisation services that
are available to them. Our approach is market oriented to a certain extent,
and if businesses approach us to extend those services we will be happy to
accommodate them. We have long since moved on from the era of planned
obsolescence; we have identified waste as an unused resource that can
benefit the bottom line of business and enterprise in general.
Waste management has a range of benefits for the environment, for
communities and for businesses. The action that the Executive is taking in
the provision of resources and in legislation moves us towards a reduction
in use, an increase in reuse and recycling and away from landfill. That
brings benefits to people throughout Scotland.
We welcome the committee's report. We will listen carefully to everything
that is said in the debate and we will keep the committee and the Parliament
informed.
John Scott (Ayr) (Con): Will the minister take an intervention in the final
moments of his speech?
Allan Wilson: Absolutely.
John Scott: Is it still the Government's intention to reduce the number of
landfill sites from 260 to about 80 during a defined period? If so, given
that the recycling areas have not yet been constructed, how will the
minister meet the targets that are outlined in his election manifesto?
Allan Wilson: It is our intention to reduce our reliance on landfill and, by
definition, that will lead to a reduction in the number of landfill sites in
the country. We intend to increase our dependence on reuse and recycling
and, as a consequence, that will increase the number of reuse and recycling
facilities that we create.
We will have to discuss how we get from where we are to where we want to be
with planners, to ensure that the process takes on board local concerns. We
did not arrive overnight at a reuse and recycling rate of less than 7 per
cent. We got where we are because of decades of under investment in waste
management in the UK.
That situation will not be repaired overnight, either. We intend to move
from where we are to where we want to be in a planned manner in the next
three years and beyond, to wider European Union targets. We hope to improve
our record on waste and to become a country to follow on waste, rather than
a country that follows others, as in the past. |
