End date looming for Waste Strategy Consultation
08/02/10
The closing date for Aberdeen City Council's Waste Strategy Consultation is drawing near.The way in which the city's waste is dealt with is under review and the consultation is being carried out to gather the views of interested parties on the draft Aberdeen City Waste Strategy 2010-25.
The new draft document is a complete revision of the city's existing waste strategy. The proposals contained in it seek to deliver the city's commitments and targets in a way that meet and deliver key policies and strategies on sustainable development and climate change.
The existing Aberdeen City Waste Strategy was published in 2001, but there has been a series of major policy changes in Scotland, the UK and Europe since then, and as a result, the existing strategy is no longer fit for purpose.
The views of those who take part in the consultation process will be used to develop the new strategy.
A strategic environmental assessment has been released for consultation in association with the draft Aberdeen City Waste Strategy 2010-25.
Housing and Environment convener Councillor Aileen Malone said: "If I had asked somebody 10 years ago what waste management meant to them, they would probably have said: "Nothing, I don't really care as long as the bins are emptied every week.".
"We've been very successful at making rubbish "disappear" for many years, but only at the expense of all tax payers, communities and the environment close to the landfill sites where we've dumped our waste.
"Today, I'm pleased to say that the answer to the same question is increasingly more informed and considerate of the consequences of just filling the black bin and not making use of the recycling services becoming commonplace across the city.
"We've made progress in recycling and composting; much more needs to be done both in providing additional services but also at an individual level. To reach the targets set in this strategy for preventing and recycling waste, a significant behavioural shift is required: everyone needs to understand the cost and benefits of their actions and change their behaviour to ensure we gain as much value from our waste as we can. The days of leaving a landfill legacy for future generations are over.
"Waste should no longer be a seen as a problem: there are ways to get benefits from everything we throw away providing we take a little care in how we do this. We can get value from all our waste through recycling, composting or other organic treatment and finally by developing high efficiency combined heat and power production from the remaining mixed waste.
Councillor Aileen Malone added: "I would strongly urge everyone who has an interest in the way Aberdeen's rubbish is dealt with and disposed of in the future to make their views known as part of this consultation."
The purpose of the Aberdeen City Waste Strategy is to provide a definitive statement of the future requirements for waste management policy, infrastructure and services for the city.
It sets out a clear set of themes, aims and objectives that move the basis of waste
management in the city from a disposal-based activity to a system that reflects the waste hierarchy and treats waste as a resource.
The strategy is intended to enable the delivery of measures required to achieve the themes, goals and objectives with particular emphasis on setting out a clear framework for those elements of the hierarchy of waste actions that the city can most directly affect, namely the collection, treatment and disposal of waste produced in Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen City Waste Strategy has been developed by the city council following a review of the existing strategy and the current and anticipated regional, national and international regulatory and policy environment.
Following this review, a series of key themes were developed that will underpin the policy development within the strategy. These key themes include:
•waste is a resource not a problem;
•gain value from waste at all stages of treatment;
•our resource, our solution;
•the proximity principle;
•the waste hierarchy;
•pragmatic, value for money but challenging
It also identifies a series of waste targets, including:
•eliminate waste growth by 2015;
•introduce organic waste collection for all households and develop treatment facilities within the Aberdeen area by 2013;
•municipal residual waste treatment capacity (including energy from waste) should not exceed 45% by 2020 and 40% by 2025;
•no more than 5% of municipal waste should be landfilled by 2025.
The key themes were the the subject of a public consultation exercise in early 2009. The views expressed in that consultation have contributed to the development of the draft Aberdeen City Waste Strategy.
The draft Aberdeen City Waste Strategy 2010-2025 provides a statement of the key outcomes for all waste management in the city for the next fifteen years and provides a framework for the development of the next generation of waste infrastructure and services.
The city has made significant strides in managing waste more sustainably in the last decade, especially in the areas of municipal, construction and demolition waste but there is still much to be achieved.
The strategy document can be viewed on the city council website at www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/Rubbish/rub/rub_WasteStrategy.asp
The consultation closing date is 5pm on Monday, 22 February. Respondents can complete the online questionnaire or send written responses to: Peter Lawrence, Strategist - Waste Management, 4th Floor, Balgownie 1, AECC, Aberdeen, AB23 8AQ. Responses can also be sent by email to wastestrategy@aberdeencity.gov.uk