Government Legislation

The main drives towards the use of energy from waste technologies are the Government aims of reducing waste sent to landfill, curbing the emissions of greenhouse gasses and increasing the diversity of our energy resources. This political involvement has come from international down to local government level and sets strict targets for waste disposal, greenhouse gas emissions providing appropriate guidance and funding where needed.

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E.U.

European Landfill Directive 2002[1 ]: sets targets to reduce biodegradable municipal landfill to 75% of 1995 amounts by 2010, 50% in 2013, and 35% by 2020.
European Packaging Directive 1994[2]: provided additional measures to reduce the amount of material sent to landfill.

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Scottish Government

National Waste Strategy 1999[3 ]: Responding to the EU landfill directive was created to begin working towards a plan for Scotland on how to meet the targets set by the EU and the UK governments. Created 11 Waste Areas to begin consultation with a number of stakeholders to develop local waste plans, which would be the centre of the National Waste Plan


National Waste Plan 2003[4 ]: Brought together the Local Waste Plans from the 11 Waste Areas to set ambitious but achievable targets on use of landfill, composting, recycling and energy from waste:
·        90% of households to have segregated waste collection by 2020
·        Cease the growth of Municipal Waste Arisings by 2010
·        25% of waste to be recycled/composted by 2006 increasing to 55% by 2020
·        Recover Energy from 14% of municipal waste
·        Reduce landfill of municipal waste to 30%
·        Provide Waste Minimisation advice to Businesses
·        Develop markets for recycled materials


Legislation has also been introduced to help achieve these targets, for example the Landfill Tax and the Landfill Allowance Schem

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UK Government

The UK government has introduce its own targets for the reduction of landfill use and the increased use of recycling, composting and energy from waste however these have largely been superseded by Scottish Government Targets
In addition to this the UK government has set targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 20% below the 1990 levels by 2010 following the Kyoto agreement[5].

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