Less landfill

The public should demand that our politicians:

Reduce waste by providing doorstep recycling for every household and by introducing a plastic bag charge. Set a 1% per year reduction target for total waste produced by 2010.

Why?

Many of us would recycle more of our household waste if it were collected from our homes. Recycling creates up to ten times more jobs than dumping or burning. Scots use 200 plastic bags per person each year – most of which end up in landfill. Scotland's total waste production is rising 2% per year.

Background

Scotland is a wasteful country. We recycle less than 8% of our waste and the majority of the rest is dumped in landfill sites. Worse still, year on year we are creating more waste – a 30% increase in the last ten years. This amounts to around 3 million tonnes per year – dumped.

With eight out of ten Scots saying they would recycle if there were doorstep collections, clearly this has to be a priority for government to deliver. We are the worst in Europe – Switzerland recycles 52% of its waste, Holland 45%, Germany 30%. Reduction in waste also reduces the need for landfill sites, which are suspected of causing health defects in children.

A broad programme is required to reduce the waste created in the first place, stop the absurdity of overpackaging of consumer goods and change the throw away attitudes in society. A strong signal to all that waste needs to be reduced would be the simple step of introducing a charge on the use of plastic shopping bags. Ireland has reduced plastic bag use by 90% since introducing a tax. An estimated 1billion plastic bags are given away in Scotland each year – that’s 200 per year for every Scot!

The recently published National Waste Plan for Scotland has set for the first time a national recycling targets for household waste of 38% by 2010 and 55% by 2020.

The Plan also aims to ensure 90% of Scottish households should have doorstep recycling by 2020. Political parties need to ensure they commit to the co-ordination and financial resources needed to deliver these targets.

Disappointingly the National Waste Plan failed set a target for waste reduction but instead accepts that it can do nothing to prevent Scotland's waste volumes growing by 2% per annum. This failure to set a waste reduction target is compounded by the fact that the Plan proposes nearly a ten-fold increase in so-called 'Energy from Waste' facilities by 2020. In a worst case scenario this could result in more polluting incinerators forced upon communities. Incineration of waste creates toxic by-products, wastes valuable resources and leads to fewer jobs than sustainable waste solutions such as recycling or composting. An early test for parties on this issue is whether they oppose the planned waste incinerator in Aberdeen.

Waste and the economy

For every job dumping waste in a landfill ten jobs could be created by recycling. The raw materials will also reduce our demand for new resources.

Type of waste disposal	Number of Jobs in processing* (per millions of tonnes waste processed)
Landfill	40-60
Incineration	100-290
Composting	200-300
Recycling	400-590

* further jobs are created in,eg, collection and separation of waste

Around 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging (worth £8 million) is wasted each year. Only 3,000 tonnes gets recycled.
Recycling aluminium can bring energy savings of up to 95% and produce 95% less climate change emissions than when it is produced from raw materials.

Waste and health

In addition to the foul smells, communities living near landfill sites often report have their homes plagued by flies every summer.
Babies born within 2km of a landfill site are more likely to have birth defects than babies born elsewhere.
Babies born within 3km of landfill sites taking hazardous waste are 40 per cent more likely to be born with chromosomal anomalies, such as Down's Syndrome.
People normally recycle using their car - with subsequent pollution and congestion.

Waste facts

Scotland generates 3 million tonnes of household waste each year
90% of that goes straight in to holes in the ground
There are over 200 landfills in Scotland
Dumping waste in Scotland is so cheap that waste is currently being shipped by ferry from Northern Ireland and dumped in Scotland
8 out of 10 Scots want doorstep recycling
Ireland has reduced plastic bag use by 90% since introducing a plastic bag tax
Around 80 per cent of household waste could be either recycled or composted, dramatically reducing the need for landfill.
The average household produces around a tonne of waste each year.

Sources: SEPA, Scottish Executive, SWAG, BMJ, Lancet, Friends of the Earth