Landfill ban delayed by two years after BBC investigation

Ban on sending black-bag waste to landfill efficient after being delayed by two years bbc scotland investigation It was discovered that as much as 100 vans of rubbish could be taken to England every single day.

Not sufficient waste incinerators have been inbuilt time to cope with the surplus waste from landfills making a “capacity gap”.

Ministers wrote to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) final month highlighting the challenges the waste business faces in making ready for the ban.

SEPA has now issued a discover saying that the ban will probably be absolutely efficient from January 2028.

While the regulation banning biodegradable municipal waste from going to landfill will nonetheless come into pressure from the tip of the 12 months, the regulator is not going to implement the ban till circumstances are met.

Waste managers and landfill operators should apply for a six-month exemption that may be renewed repeatedly till December 31, 2027.

One waste analyst described the answer as a “fudge”.

This ban applies to virtually all family and industrial waste that isn’t separated for recycling.

The Scottish Government is searching for to distance itself from the delay, saying enforcement is an operational matter for the impartial environmental regulator.

SEPA says Scotland has made vital progress in lowering the quantity of waste going to landfill and a “practical, time-limited” delay is essentially the most accountable strategy.

A spokesperson stated: “In reaching this decision, we carefully considered all available evidence to ensure that residual waste is managed appropriately, in line with government policy and with the lowest possible carbon impact.”

The BBC Disclosure sequence in June revealed issues inside the business in regards to the degree of preparedness for the ban.

In the primary 12 months, 600,000 tonnes of waste in Scotland may have nowhere to go as a consequence of an absence of spare capability at incinerators.

The documentary revealed that almost all waste must be taken to England or abroad for processing if the ban got here into pressure.

An skilled stated 80 to 100 lorries cross the border every single day and there are issues there may be not sufficient transport capability to hold the waste.

Alasdair Meldrum, director of waste administration consultancy Albion Environmental, stated the delay was not sudden because the ban was more likely to trigger “significant disruption”.

He stated: “The practical reality is that energy from waste, with the current rate of landfill tax, is less expensive than landfill, so there will be commercial pressure on operators to use it wherever possible.”

But he warned that delays by regulators in permitting waste to go to landfill may result in backlogs as incinerators break down.

As properly as having a visible impression on communities, landfills are thought-about the least environmentally sustainable option to deal with waste.

It entails dumping waste into a big pit within the floor and overlaying it with soil.

Landfill taxes have made the choice to incineration, the place trash is burned in a furnace to generate electrical energy, more and more costlier.

Efforts to encourage us to recycle have barely moved the dial in Scotland, regardless that charges are excessive in the remainder of the UK – a lot larger for Wales.

Several new incinerators are both in planning or underneath building, which ought to shut the capability hole inside two years.

Due to long-term issues about overcapacity on the incinerator, ministers introduced in 2022 that no extra capability could be permitted than was already into account.

Friends of the Earth Scotland has lengthy argued that incineration shouldn’t be seen as an answer to coping with waste and that better funding is required in waste discount and recycling.

Campaigner Kim Pratt stated: “Instead of allowing these costly and harmful policies to continue, the Scottish Government should close the loopholes in its incinerator moratorium and properly invest in real solutions to waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle.”