Controversial incinerators plan to help Scotland hit green targets

MINISTERS yesterday outlined radical plans to make Scotland one of the greenest countries in Europe with an ambitious target to send just 5 per cent of household waste to landfill sites by 2025.

Seven or eight waste incineration plants – likely to prove controversial – could be built to take up to 25 per cent of waste, while recycling rates would be dramatically increased from 30 per cent today to 70 per cent.

Richard Lochhead, the Scottish environment secretary, said Scotland must "aspire to be up there with the best" recycling countries in Europe as part of the fight against climate change

He signalled he wanted to see small-scale, highly efficient incinerators which utilise heat created by the process. These are able to convert about 80 per cent of the waste's energy into heating, while incinerators that simply create electricity are less than half as efficient.

Speaking at the Scottish Parliament, Mr Lochhead said: "Across Europe, the most impressive municipal recycling rates being achieved now are 60 per cent to 70 per cent– double Scotland's rate.

"Scotland must aspire to be up there with the best. So today I am proposing targets for municipal waste of a minimum of 50 per cent by 2013 and a further aspirational target of a minimum of 70 per cent by 2025.

"At the heart of our policy proposals is a commitment to move Scotland towards zero waste. "

Councils in the Lothians had suggested that around 50 per cent of their waste could be incinerated and waste management company Viridor has submitted a planning permission for a 450,000-tonne, combined heat and power facility near Dunbar.

But Mr Lochhead said: "This administration will include our 25 per cent limit for energy from waste technologies in the National Planning Framework at both a national and a regional level.

"We will also lay down conditions to reflect our view that energy from waste plants must deliver a high level of efficiency through combined heat and power or district heating.

"This Government is opposed to large, inefficient energy from waste plants. Such plants could easily become white elephants and drain public funds."

The Scotsman understands that plants capable of taking up to 100,000 tonnes of waste a year would be considered an acceptable size. And eight of these could take the 25 per cent of waste permitted to be incinerated – about 750,000 to 800,000 tonnes at current rates. It is also possible that a higher number of smaller facilities, including anaerobic digestion, gasification and biofuel plants which do not involve burning, could be created.

Heating in most of Lerwick is provided by an energy-from-waste plant which pumps hot water into homes, companies and public buildings.

Jim Grant, of Shetland Council, who was in Edinburgh for a conference, said emissions from the modern incineration process were "insignificant".

Friends of the Earth Scotland "warmly welcomed" the new recycling target.

But Robin Harper MSP, of the Scottish Green Party, said incinerators were "costly, polluting and blight local communities and anyone downwind of them".

Viridor said: "The policy aligns with our proposals."

PLAN TO CUT PLASTIC BAGS

LEGISLATION could be introduced to curtail the "unnecessary use" of plastic bags, Richard Lochhead warned yesterday.

The Scottish Environment Secretary, said the Holyrood administration "could follow California", where shops over a certain size must provide recycling facilities for plastic bags.

"Reducing the unnecessary use of plastic bags is a crucial issue," he said.

The former Scottish Executive made a voluntary agreement with the retailers to reduce the environmental impact of bags.

Mr Lochhead said he may take steps if this approach was not producing results.

How Flanders could be a role model for waste disposal

FLANDERS in Belgium represents a vision of how Scotland might be dealing with its waste in 17 years time.

The region, which has a population of six million, has sent no household waste to landfill sites since 2006, recycling more than 70 per cent and turning almost all the rest into energy. Even 65 per cent of ash from incinerators is recycled although the rest is put in landfill sites.

People also produce dramatically lower levels of waste than those living in Scotland.

The average figure for each household is 560 kilogrammes a year, about half the 1,160kg produced by Scottish homes.

As part of the drive to raise recycling rates from less than 20 per cent in 1991 to the current level, anything that could be recycled was banned from going to landfill sites. A landfill tax and an incineration tax were also introduced to make both of these more expensive than recycling.

And laws were introduced to make people sort their waste.

This was coupled with high quality collection and sorting services with comprehensive kerbside collections, local sites where people can dispose of rubbish and a home composting programme.

Companies making electrical appliances, packaging, oil and newspapers have become financially responsible for their products' waste streams through voluntary agreements.

Manufacturers have also faced a special tax being imposed on their products if they do not ensure they are recycled once used. A scheme to collect old batteries was also set up.