The third Area Waste Plan Annual Reports published today reveal how local authorities are helping to tackle waste produced throughout each area in Scotland.
The reports, which are available on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
(SEPA) website, are broken down into the 11 individual waste plan areas.
They provide a review of progress between April 2005-March 2006 based on the wide range of activities relating to all wastes that the Waste Strategy Area Groups undertake in delivering the sustainable waste management objectives of the National Waste Plan, at the local level.
Local activities have been successfully carried out in relation to:
· Municipal waste prevention
· Municipal waste recycling and composting
· Waste planning
· Education and awareness
· Commercial and industrial wastes
As announced last week, significant progress is being made towards the Scottish
Minister's targets of 25% recycling and composting rates by the end of this year,
According to the latest waste figures the quarterly statistics from January - March 2006 indicates a recycling and composting figure of 22.2%. The rolling figure for municipal waste recycled or composted from April 2005-March 2006 is 24.4%.
Highland
This third annual report of the Highland Area Waste Plan provides a review of progress between April 2005 and March 2006.
Headline achievements made towards implementing the plan can be summarised as follows:
Highland Council achieved a dramatic expansion in recycling provision through the extension of kerbside collections to 48,000 households, the opening of five new Recycling Centres and the development of a network of 175 Recycling Points. At March 2006, Highland had achieved a recycling rate of 19.9%.
NOSSOR (North of Scotland Strategic Options Review Group) completed a scoping study and submitted a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) to the Scottish Executive.
CRNS held several training sessions with the Highland Forum and developed an additional community forum in the Cairngorms National Park. SEPA worked with CRNS to deliver regulatory training for community groups.
An Education and Awareness Plan for Highland was developed after a stakeholder workshop in October 2005.
A Business Waste Group was convened highlighting areas of cooperation on waste and tendering comments on the consultation on the Sustainable Management of Waste from Business and Public Sector Organisations in Scotland.
Waste Prevention continued to be promoted through the Highland Real Nappy project and the promotion of Green Cone composting.
A series of seminars was organised to inform Councillors and local government officials about planning issues for sustainable waste management.
A planning sub-group of the North East and Highland Waste Strategy groups was formed to bring planning officials from the four Councils together to discuss planning issues of common interest and report back to the main groups.
Progress against the individual targets contained in the Action
