The Scottish Government launched a 12-week consultation on proposals for legislation to develop Scotland’s circular economy on 30 May (see letsrecycle.com story).
Within the consultation, the Scottish Government says it intends to introduce pilots of business waste zones, managed by local authorities, in 2024. If successful, it would then look to introduce them across Scotland.
Business collection zoning involves contractors competing to undertake all commercial collection in a particular ‘zone’.
The Recycling Association is the trade association for the paper recycling sector and other UK recycling companies. Dr Simon Ellin, the association’s chief executive, described the proposals as “deeply concerning”.
He said: “Commercial waste collections are not broken, and our members in Scotland will not want to see zones that remove competition and ensure only those with the deepest resources are able to service these zones.
“This removes innovation, and the ability of all businesses to find efficiencies when providing collections to their customers.”
Dr Ellin said he would respond to the consultation on behalf of the Recycling Association’s members.
He said he would suggest that the Scottish Government works with Defra to come up with new rules that “protect the interests of our industry businesses” as well as allowing their customers to have “efficient and low-cost” collections.
Zoning
The Scottish Government claims the variety of business waste collection providers in a single area, operating different collection infrastructure and uplift times, “impacts” on the local environment.
The issues include the impacts on air quality, noise and emissions from multiple vehicles entering the same area to service different clients with similar waste, the Scottish Government says. It also says businesses can be “challenged” by the array of commercial waste services available.
Zoning could provide opportunities for greater collaboration, cost savings, service standardisation, reducing traffic, transparent charges and added benefits such as bin weighing, carbon accounting and end-destination reporting as part of a contract, the Scottish Government says.
Business districts, towns, cities and regions across the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Barcelona and London, already utilise some forms of zoning as a method of improving their local environment.
The Scottish Government pointed to analysis by resources charity WRAP which suggests that businesses could save up to 40% by collaborating on service procurement and container and collection “optimisation”.
Business waste
Business waste has proved a particularly controversial topic for the Recycling Association and the wider waste management sector in recent years.
Defra recently ditched plans for businesses to receive a rebate for packaging waste under its extended producer responsibility framework following extensive lobbying by industry (see letsrecycle.com story).
Dr Ellin said the Recycling Association had issued a recent warning that similar plans to create zones in England could “wipe out” businesses that deal with commercial waste collections.
He said: “In the case of Defra, working with other trade associations, we managed to convince them to review the policy on commercial collections as part of the extended producer responsibility framework and a taskforce will be set up to come up with industry-led proposals by 2026/7.”
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