Laura Tainsh: Be prepared for changes to waste management laws

Laura Tainsh is a Partner and waste management specialist at Davidson Chalmers

A number of significant policy and regulatory changes which govern the way we manage waste across the UK are on the horizon. One of the key measures to be implemented by the Scottish Government is a landfill ban covering all biodegradable municipal waste (BMW). The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 inserted a provision in the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003 prohibiting the acceptance of BMW at landfills from 1 January 2021.

There are sound reasons for reducing landfill disposals, such as the carbon emissions produced by this type of waste. However, there is still a lot of work to be done between now and the start of 2021 in order to make the ban work. SEPA has yet to make the necessary variation to existing landfill licences or permits to implement the legislative provision. Detailed technical guidance about precisely how banned material would be determined was only published in April 2018 and is still to be supplemented by additional guidance about the required biodegradability testing. SEPA is setting up a technical group, including members from across the industry, to devise further guidance on the necessary sampling and testing that will be required as a result of the forthcoming landfill ban.

The Scottish Government and SEPA are also still in the process of gathering evidence as to the waste industry’s readiness for the implementation of the ban. Despite some significant investment in new plant by developers, there remains an insufficient amount of energy from waste and other infrastructure within Scotland to deal with the expected increase of re-directed BMW waste materials from 2021.