Iain Gulland is right, and I echo the comment of other witnesses that Scotland is in a good place through having the legislation already. It was really encouraging that that happened early through the strategies that were put in place; indeed, it has been great, because such things take time. As part of the waste regulations, we have the landfill ban for biodegradable waste, and getting food waste out of landfill is probably the biggest contribution that the waste sector can make to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
According to figures from 2014 that support the landfill ban, in the region of 1.35 million tonnes of food waste arises in Scotland. Of that, 600,000 tonnes comes from households and roughly 740,000 tonnes comes from the business, commercial and industrial sector. However, if we look at what is collected separately as food waste, we find that about 1 million tonnes of waste is not accounted for. The aim of the landfill ban is therefore to drive the change back up the chain for producers and the waste sector, which is where the challenge lies.
It has been really good to have the 50kg threshold, as it was in 2014, and the 5kg threshold, as it became in 2016. They have definitely made an impact, but I fear that their effect has started to tail off and that, until the landfill ban’s teeth begin to bite, things will plateau.
I would like to see evidence of what will happen between now and 2020-21 to put in motion actions to ensure that the landfill ban is effective and that the targets are met. I do not know what those actions are, but I would like to hear discussion of how waste will be tested before it goes into landfill to find out whether it contains any food waste.
Currently, any waste management company that is not too concerned about adhering to the regulations will pick up residual waste and, although it knows that there is a lot of food waste in that, it will take the waste to landfill, where it will be accepted. That practice will continue until the ban is in place or at least until measures are put in place to stop it.
The ban process could be accelerated or at least some measures could be put in place to make the waste management sector aware that the ban is coming. Market signals will be needed before 2021 to allow the sector to put the infrastructure in place. We cannot just say suddenly on 31 January 2020 that the current waste practice is no longer acceptable and leave ourselves with 1 million tonnes of waste and nowhere for it to go. We need the organic sector and in-vessel composting to be already established to take the food waste material, and the waste management sector must be geared up to provide the required services.
This is a good time to look at all that, and the review of the plan is timely, because we have three or four years to put measures in place. The longer we drift and the longer some issues are not addressed, the more challenging the task will be.