The Scottish Parliament has agreed that its environment committee is to explore a number of issues – including “cash for trash” incentives – to assess how Scotland might better manage waste.
The Scottish Parliament has agreed that the Environment, Climate Change and Landfill Reform Committee will examine waste generation and disposal. The work will include looking at waste sent to landfill, incineration or recycling centres – and identifying the challenges and opportunities in meeting waste targets.
The Environment, Climate Change and Landfill Reform Committee is to explore “cash for trash” incentives
As part of this, the Committee will look at the volume, sources and treatment of waste in Scotland before considering what improvements might be made.
Convener of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee Graeme Dey MSP said: “Our Committee intends to explore Scotland’s approach to waste management in the round.
Priorities
“We plan to take evidence to identify the key issues for waste management before focussing on possible priorities for action. A deposit return scheme might be part of the solution but we will examine this in the context of a wider look into waste management.”
An initial piece of research which has already been carried out by a sub group of the Committee, examined the feasibility of introducing a deposit return scheme (DRS), allowing customers to return bottles or cans for a cash payment.
An initial piece of research examined the feasibility of introducing a deposit return scheme (DRS)
The sub group met with members of Scotland’s waste management industry as well as environmental charities and local authorities to create a report for the Committee, which identified the pros and cons of DRS.
Some of the opportunities highlighted in the first report included: behaviour changes could be achieved swiftly; there have been successful models in Europe, such as Sweden’s ‘Keep Sweden Tidy’ DRS which it said has removed 83% of plastic and aluminium from waste stream; and, by having one collection system and company that handles all materials covered by DRS would reduce overall recycling costs efficient for businesses.
Barriers
However, the sub group noted barriers to DRS, including lack of space for DRS collection facilities in smaller shops or independent retailers with concerns that they would lose profit and footfall as larger retailers would be most likely to provide the space.
The Sub Group also received written submissions from a number of organisations.
In their submission, the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA) and the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) warned that the DRS has the capacity to “de-stabilise the food and drink sector and existing local authority recycling schemes, increase costs and administration for businesses and hit the poorest consumers hardest.
“SWA and FWD call upon the Scottish Government to reject the DRS approach and instead work with PRGS and other stakeholders including the wholesale sector to achieve a drinks container recycling rate of 80% by 2025.”
The post Scottish committee to explore ‘cash for trash’ appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
