by Bill Heaney
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has announced that it will only enforce the Scottish landfill ban from 1 January 2028, as long as certain conditions are met.
The legislation will still apply from 1 January 2026 and will include mixed waste and separately collected waste from households.
According to a temporary Regulatory Position Statement issued, SEPA will not enforce the ban as long as the following conditions are met:
- Waste producers and managers who intend to transfer Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) waste to a landfill operator for disposal in the landfill must notify SEPA in writing using the BMW Ban – Notification Form
- Confirmation of satisfactory receipt of the notification must be received from SEPA before the transfer of BMW waste can take place
- Where confirmation of satisfactory receipt of the notification has been issued by SEPA, this must be provided by the waste producer or manager to the landfill operator as evidence that the waste can be accepted for disposal in the landfill
- The notification will apply for a maximum of six months from the date of notification
Explaining the move, the regulator noted that it does not expect that all “required treatment capacity and logistics will be in place by the end of this year”, but that additional Energy from Waste (EfW) capacity will come online between 2026 and 2027.
The ban was first proposed in 2005 to come into effect in 2021 but was delayed to 2025 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It includes paper and cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, bio-waste, wood, textiles, packaging, waste electrical and electronic equipment, waste batteries and accumulators.
It will also ban bulky waste such as mattresses and furniture, mixed waste and separately collected waste from sources other than households, where such waste is “similar in nature and composition to waste from households”.
Concerns around long-distance haulage
Industry experts warned in June that the ban would result in waste being transported to England for landfilling or EfW purposes – due to a lack of capacity for incineration in Scotland.
An investigation revealed that over 100 truckloads of waste could be sent over the border a day, with each load taking between one to three days to reach its final destination.
Speaking about the enforcement decision, SEPA added: “This approach is intended to maintain environmental protection and minimise whole-system greenhouse gas emissions during the current capacity gap – for example by avoiding long-distance haulage or export.”
Scottish landfill rates
SEPA reported this week that Scotland recorded its lowest level of household waste sent to landfill in 2024.
254,000 tonnes of household waste were landfilled last year, a decrease of 37.7% on 2034 levels.
Since 2011, the landfill rate has fallen by 82.5%, going from 120,000 tonnes diverted to just over one million tonnes diverted in 2024.
Waste ready to go to landfill from West Dunbartonshire at Dalmoak, near Renton. Picture by Bill Heaney
SEPA said this marks the lowest amount of household waste landfilled in the current time series.
With landfill tonnages falling, the majority of diverted household waste was instead managed through incineration, which accounted for 853,000 tonnes in 2024 – 82.3% of all waste diverted from landfill.
This marks an increase of 107,000 tonnes compared with 2023, when 746,000 tonnes were incinerated.
Almost half of all waste from Scottish households continues to be disposed of either through landfill or incineration rather than recycled.
**Correction: A previous version of this header and article stated that the ban was delayed. The ban will still be in place from 1 January 2026, but will only be enforced from 1 January 2028 if the above conditions are met.
Democrat editor Bill Heaney speaks to Labour’s Sarah Boyack and LibDem Liam McArthur (right).
Alasdair Meldrum, director of waste management consultants Albion Environmental, who said that the SNP government’s delay in rolling out a landfill ban was “fairly inevitable”.
And that more needs to be done to do more to “encourage the public to use their food waste collection and recycling system better”, estimating that 80% of what goes into a residual bin, which goes to landfill, should not be there and should be recycled.
Commenting on news that the SNP has delayed its planned landfill ban by two years after plans to send waste to England were revealed, Scottish Labour Net Zero spokesperson Sarah Boyack said “Yet another SNP policy has descended into chaos and yet another environmental target has been missed.
“The SNP’s farcical plan to ship rubbish over the border was never the right answer, but we still need a real plan to deal with waste.
“This shambles is yet more proof that this SNP government is out of ideas and out of time.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat climate crisis spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said: “When we learned last month that the ban had collapsed, Scottish Liberal Democrats called on the SNP government to admit that they had yet again failed to do the hard graft to deliver their own policy.
“The SNP had previously planned to ship up to 100 truckloads of waste to England each day.
“Now, it’s also clear that ministers are doing nowhere near enough to encourage people to use their food waste and recycling systems properly. There has been a lack of information and support about how to make strategies for waste, recycling and reuse a success.
“Scotland deserves better than a SNP government that will make grand promises in one breath and chuck them into landfill in the next.”
In October, Scottish Liberal Democrats revealed that the SNP were delaying their landfill ban. You can read more about that story here
You can also read more about the BBC investigation about up to 100 truckloads of rubbish being shipped to England each day.
- West Dunbartonshire Council refuses to comment to The Democrat on this and other major issues affecting the local public. The chief communications officer is being paid £129,000 a year for refusing to communicate.