Waste Strategy

[Image: Waste Strategy Scotland document]

Waste management in Scotland is facing a period of fundamental change. Driven by EU policy and legislation, there has been an acceptance that we must produce less waste, reuse and recycle more and recover value from as much as possible of what is left.

The National Waste Strategy: Scotland was introduced by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in 1999. It required Dundee City Council to work closely with neighbouring Angus and Perth & Kinross Councils to create a Tayside Area Waste Plan. After a long period of consultation, the Plan was formally approved by the Scottish Government and integrated into the National Waste Plan 2003 for Scotland.

Please use the links below to view full copies of National and Area Waste Strategies & Plans.

National Waste Strategy Scotland (2.2MB PDF)
National Waste Plan 2003 (1MB PDF)
Tayside Area Waste Plan (full document) (590KB PDF)
Tayside Area Waste Plan (summary document) (170KB PDF)

Please note: the above documents are being downloaded from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency website and may take some time to download.

The Area Waste Plan sets out the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) for Tayside. The BPEO is the most cost effective and efficient solution to improve waste management in the Tayside area. Based on the Waste Hierarchy, the BPEO aims to reduce waste being generated in the first place, then reuse and recycle as much as possible.

Scotland's National Waste Plan 2003 includes a national target to recycle or compost 25% of municipal waste by 2006. It also notes that this ambitious target is only an initial goal on the way to meeting further targets in future.

Dundee City Council is highly regarded in the field of waste management and has consistently held one of the highest recycling rates in Scotland. However, in order to comply with the BPEO laid out in the Tayside Area Waste Plan and contribute to the 25% national recycling target by 2006, existing systems and facilities will need to be expanded and new ones adopted.

A Dundee City Council Implementation Plan has been drafted that sets out in defined stages how this will be delivered in a methodical and planned manner over the next 20 years in the city. Integral to the future of municipal waste management in the city will be the continued utilisation of DERL, the existing Waste-To-Energy plant at Baldovie. The plant uses the latest technology to generate electricity (from the incineration of waste) that can be fed back into the national grid.

In addition, over the next 20 years residents of Dundee can expect:

Existing blue bin collections (for waste paper) and brown bin collections (for botanical waste) to be expanded further across the city
The number of recycling points in the city to be increased
Recycling centres to be refurbished and able to accept a wider variety of material for recycling
A new kerbside multi-material dry recyclable collection to be piloted in the city
Publicity and awareness-raising campaigns

In addition, through the Tayside Area Waste Group, Dundee City Council will contribute to the production of a Tayside strategy for the prevention of household waste.

This information is provided by the Waste Management Department