Zero Waste Scotland (25/03/08)

This weeks marks another major step along the road to a zero waste Scotland. The launch of the 2008 Composting at Home Campaign takes place today and the Zero Waste Think Tank meets for the first time tomorrow.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead launched the Composting at Home campaign in Fife.

The hugely successful campaign has been run for the previous four years, distributing over 160,000 compost bins to Scottish households, with more bins planned for distribution this year.

Mr Lochhead will also chair the Think Tank tomorrow in Edinburgh.

The group, announced in a parliamentary statement on waste in January, brings together a number of experts to discuss the best ways in which Scotland can move towards a zero waste society.

Speaking in Fife, Mr Lochhead said:

"Composting of household and garden waste plays a vital part in the push towards a zero waste Scotland.

"This campaign has been enormously successful in the past and the distribution of thousands of bins is testament to that.

"I am hoping to see even more bins appear in Scottish gardens this year. We have come a long way in recycling and composting household waste but there is much more than individuals can do to.

"However, there are few better places than Fife to launch a campaign such as this.

"In recycling and composting 36.2 per cent of their waste, they are well ahead of the overall Scottish figure and actually recycle more tonnes of waste than any other local authority in Scotland. Fife are also the first council in Scotland to commit to the principle of sending zero waste to landfill, by 2020.

"Continuing an important week for waste in Scotland, tomorrow marks the first meeting of the Zero Waste Think Tank, which I am delighted to be chairing.

"In January, I announced a number of policies which will improve waste prevention, further increase recycling rates and reduce waste going to landfill.

"The Think Tank brings together a wide range of expertise, all with a common goal - moving Scotland towards becoming a zero waste society.

"Tomorrow will mark the first in a series of meetings aimed at making that goal a reality."

The membership of the Zero Waste Think Tank has been confirmed as:

Professor Jim Baird, Caledonian Environment Centre
Professor Jan Bebbington, Sustainable Development Commission (Vice-Chair) and Professor in Acccounting and Sustainable Development in the School of Management at the University of St. Andrews
Professor James Curran, Director, Entrading
David Dougherty, director of the Clean Washington Center in Seattle, United States
Chris Ewing, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Fife Council
John Ferguson, Waste and Resources Unit Manager, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Iain Gulland, Network Director, Community Recycling Network for Scotland
Professor Nick Hanley, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Stirling
Peter Jones, Director - External Relations, Biffa Waste Services Limited
Andy Law, Director of Operational Services, Argyll and Bute Council
Peter Lederer, Chairman, Gleneagles Hotel Limited
Jude Maxwell, Senior Executive, Sustainable Waste and Resource Management, Scottish Enterprise
Kit Strange, Director, Resource Recovery Forum

The meeting will be held at the Hub in Edinburgh for the full day.

The Composting at Home Campaign is a partnership between Waste Aware Scotland, WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), the Scottish Government and all 32 Local Authorities in Scotland.

Composting bins can be ordered for as little as £6 via the Waste Aware Scotland website or by calling the order line on 0845 077 0756. The new Waste Aware Scotland Home Composting mini site provides information on how to begin composting, what you can compost and 'doctor compost' to solve all your composting problems.

The Cabinet Secretary was visiting the Lochhead Waste Management Facility in Fife, which hosts facilities for public recycling, composting (processing around 10,000 tonnes of green waste per year), waste wood processing, landfill and a combined heat and power facility (CHP). The CHP can produce up to 2 MW of electricity from methane extracted from landfill, enough to power over 2,000 homes. Waste heat is used to heat over 200 domestic flats and seven public buildings.

In addition to the Fife visit and the Think Tank meeting, Minister for Environment Michael Russell visited the Deerdykes Composting and Organics Recycling Facility in Cumbernauld, where he opened an extension to its composting facilities.