Scottish Government, Victoria Quay, Leith, Edinburgh. Photo Scottish Government (CC BY 2.0).
Such is its concern for the environment, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has banned the burning of bin bag waste in Scottish landfills from 31 December this year.
Years of failure to invest in new incinerating facilities, (the only preferable alternative to landfill), have left Scotland without the capacity to handle the estimated 600,000 tons of waste in 2026.
The SNP approached English incinerators to deal with the excess, but discovered that lack of sufficient spare capacity meant that much of it could not be processed. Undaunted, it indicated that the unprocessed waste would be sent to English landfill sites or transported abroad. Waste experts reckon that could mean 80 to 100 trucks trundling daily across the border, probably causing more harmful emissions than the actual waste.