Waste being dumped in the Auchencarroch Hills between Jamestown and Haldane in Balloch.
by Democrat reporter
West Dunbartonshire Council’s plan for disposing of waste could fall flat on its backside because of bureaucratic bumbledom at a national level.
There are predictions out there that the proposed new system which presumably has been taken into account by the Council will be strangled by red tape.
Scottish Liberal Democrat climate emergency spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said the SNP Government’s landfill ban has “fallen apart” — because ministers failed to prepare after SEPA published new rules allowing mass breaches of the imminent ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste (BMW).
SNP ministers have insisted that the ban will still come into force on 31 December. However, at the same time SEPA published guidance allowing anyone who manages waste to apply for exemption after exemption to breach the ban and continue landfilling BMW without any consequences.
Liam McArthur MSP said: “The SNP’s landfill ban has fallen apart because ministers failed to do the hard graft needed to deliver their own policy.
“For years, the SNP and Greens had planned to circumvent the landfill ban by sending 100 lorryloads of rubbish a day to England.
“Now ministers have come up with a new system of red tape to dodge their own ban, where the waste still goes in Scottish landfills after a rubber-stamping exercise.
“Ministers ought to admit that their ban is now just a pretence and a PR exercise that will make zero difference to greenhouse gas emissions.”
SEPA has today published the Temporary Regulatory Position Statement on the Ban on Landfilling Biodegradable Municipal Waste. It allows producers or managers of BMW to submit a notification form to SEPA which, once received and a receipt is issued, allows them to continue to send waste to Scottish landfill sites without it being considered a breach of permit.
Landfill sites also have to get approval from SEPA to accept the waste without breaching permit.
Permission to breach the ban can be reapplied for every six months, until 31 December 2027 – the date the exemption system currently expires.
The ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) is a crucial part of delivering Scotland’s net zero ambitions and in line with Committee for Climate Change advice. It will come into force on 31 December this year.
Significant efforts and investment have been made by local authorities and commercial waste operators to prepare for the ban. The overwhelming majority of local authorities have ban compliant solutions in place and there has been a significant expansion of energy from waste facilities in Scotland in recent years.
However, due to a temporary shortfall of energy from waste capacity in Scotland, some parts of the waste sector have identified challenges in fully complying with the upcoming ban.
Taking account of these challenges, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has today published a Regulatory Position Statement outlining its approach to enforcing the ban.
