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1.1 This document is the Scottish equivalent to the consultation paper for England and Wales, "Limiting Landfill", which was published by the Department of Transport and the Regions on 5 October 1999. It discusses the implementation of the EC Landfill Directive (1999/31/EEC) in Scotland and describes the targets for reductions in the landfill of biodegradable municipal waste set by the Directive and the size of the challenge faced in meeting them. These targets are legally binding and require the UK to reduce substantially the amount of such waste going to landfill to meet three successive targets over the next two decades.
1.2 The document then sets out possible options for putting these targets in place by limiting the use of landfill for certain wastes. It explores some of the merits and disadvantages of these options, and asks questions relating to their design and effect. Where the Scottish Executive has an initial view, this is indicated in the paper. No decision has yet been taken on the instrument needed to limit landfill.
1.3 This paper complements the draft National Waste Strategy for Scotland, published for consultation by the Scottish Environment Protection Unit (SEPA) on 18 May 1999. Limits on the use of landfill for biodegradable municipal waste will act as a key driver behind the Scottish Executive’s commitment to increase recycling, composting, and recovery rates for wastes. This commitment, and other possible drivers to help achieve it, are set out in the draft strategy; this consultation paper does not consider how to deal with waste diverted away from landfill as a consequence of the Landfill Directive’s targets. Details of how to obtain a copy of the draft strategy are given in paragraph 6.5.
1.4 Responses to this document will be taken into account by the Scottish Executive in developing a statutory instrument for limiting the use of landfill to meet the EC Landfill Directive’s targets in Scotland.
1.5 Responsibility for the implementation of the Landfill Directive in Scotland falls to the Scottish Parliament. However, the targets in the Landfill Directive are set for the UK as a whole and need to be divided up between each of the separate administrations (see Paragraph 3.12). .
1.6 Consultation on the other aspects of the implementation of the Landfill Directive, such as changes to existing controls on landfill operation to be brought about by the Directive, will be the subject of a separate consultation exercise in early 2000 (see paragraphs 1.17 - 1.18).
The EC Landfill Directive
1.7 Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the Landfill of Waste (better known as the Landfill Directive) was agreed in Europe at Council on 26 April 1999 and came into force in the EU on 16 July 1999. It needs to be transposed into UK law no later than 16 July 2001. The full text of the Directive was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities L182/1 on 16 July 1999 and is available on the Europa Website http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex.
1.8 The Directive aims to harmonise controls on the landfill of waste throughout the European Union, and its main focus is on common standards for the design, operation and aftercare of landfill sites. It also aims to reduce the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, emitted from landfill sites. The UK has a wider legally binding target, agreed at Kyoto in December 1997, to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
1.9 With this latter aim in mind, the Directive sets three progressive targets for Member States to reduce the amount of their biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill (see Box 1). Biodegradable waste was focused upon because it is the biodegradable element of waste which breaks down to produce methane. The targets are set for an important waste stream - biodegradable municipal waste - but the Directive requires that the strategy for achieving the targets must also address the need to reduce all biodegradable waste going to landfill.
BOX 1
| The targets are contained in
Article 5 of the Directive, which requires that:
"1. Member States shall set up a national strategy for the implementation of the reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfills, not later than two years after the date laid down in Article 18(1) and notify the Commission of this strategy. This strategy should include measures to achieve the targets set out in paragraph 2 by means of in particular, recycling, composting, biogas production or materials/energy recovery. 2. This strategy shall ensure that: (a) not later than 5 years after the date laid down in Article 181, biodegradable municipal waste going to landfills must be reduced to 75% of the total amount (by weight) of biodegradable municipal waste produced in 1995 or the latest year before 1995 for which standardised EUROSTAT2data is available. (b) not later than 8 years after the date laid down in Article 18(1), biodegradable municipal waste going to landfills must be reduced to 50% of the total amount (by weight) of biodegradable municipal waste produced in 1995 or the latest year before 1995 for which standardised EUROSTAT data is available. (c) not later than 15 years after the date laid down in Article 18(1), biodegradable municipal waste going to landfills must be reduced to 35% of the total amount (by weight) of biodegradable municipal waste produced in 1995 or the latest year before 1995 for which standardised EUROSTAT data is available. Two years before the date referred to in paragraph (c) the Council shall re-examine the above target, on the basis of a report from the Commission on the practical experience gained by Member States in the pursuance of the targets laid down in paragraphs (a) and (b) accompanied, if appropriate, by a proposal with a view to confirming or amending this target in order to ensure a high level of environmental protection. Member States which in 1995 or the latest year before 1995 for which standardised EUROSTAT data is available put more than 80% of their collected municipal waste to landfill may postpone the attainment of the targets set out in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) by a period not exceeding four years..." |
Meeting the Targets
1.10 Scotland currently disposes of the vast majority of its municipal waste (over 90%) by sending it to landfill, and meeting the targets presents a substantial challenge to this country. The targets in the EC Landfill Directive mean that action will be required on two levels.
i) Limit the use of landfill to ensure that no more than the allowed amount of biodegradable municipal waste is landfilled by the target dates.
ii) Build up alternatives to landfill to deal with the diverted waste, encourage the diversion of waste away from landfill towards these alternatives, and encourage initiatives which minimise the amount of biodegradable municipal waste produced.
1.11 The first action is the subject of this document. The targets in the Directive are legally binding on the UK and must be met. The Scottish Executive considers that the scale of the change needed to meet the targets, and the relatively short timetable for bringing about this change, mean that a statutory instrument to limit the use of landfill for biodegradable municipal waste is essential.
1.12 The second action is dealt with in the draft National Waste Strategy for Scotland. The draft strategy sets out mechanisms to promote a move towards the sustainable management of municipal waste. It also reiterates SEPA’s support for the principle of Best Practicable Environmental Option (see paragraph 3.3), and the waste hierarchy, within which recycling and composting should be considered before recovery of energy from waste.
1.13 The Scottish Executive’s obligation to limit the use of landfill for biodegradable municipal waste underpins these commitments in the draft strategy, and will act as an important driver for achieving them by requiring that such waste is managed by alternatives to landfill, such as recycling, composting, and energy recovery.
What about biodegradable wastes not covered by the targets?
1.14 As set out above, The National Waste Strategy contains policies, targets and measures to achieve reductions in the landfill of all waste, including biodegradable municipal waste.
1.15 In this way, it is intended that the commitments under Article 5 of the Directive for a "national strategy" to reduce the landfill of all biodegradable wastes, and to achieve the targets for reductions in the landfill of biodegradable municipal waste, will be fulfilled through the publication of final waste strategies for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
1.16 Moreover, the landfill of biodegradable wastes is the subject of separate action to reduce methane emissions. In implementing the Landfill Directive, the Scottish Executive will build upon existing statutory guidance on landfill practice by requiring any site receiving biodegradable wastes to collect, treat, and use where possible, landfill gases (including methane). This will help reduce, as far as possible, emissions of methane gas from landfills receiving biodegradable waste from any source.
Consultation on other aspects of Directive
1.17 The targets for the landfill of biodegradable municipal waste are only one part of the Landfill Directive. Many of the Directive’s regulatory standards are similar to those already in existence in the UK under our Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994, Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the forthcoming Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations. But the Directive will also bring some key changes, for instance by requiring:
1.18 The implementation of these other aspects of the Directive will be the subject of a separate consultation exercise in early 2000.
1 The date laid down in Article 18(1) of the Landfill Directive is "not later than two years after [the Directive’s] entry into force". The Directive entered into force on 16 July 1999, so the strategy must be in place by 16 July 2001.
2 EUROSTAT is the statistical office of the European Communities
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