"The survey will provide valuable information on commercial and industrial wastes to underpin the future development of the National Waste Strategy for Scotland and, in particular, the delivery of the commercial and industrial waste framework which is being developed by SEPA and the Scottish Executive and will be published shortly"
John Ferguson
Scottish businesses produce around 9m tonnes of waste annually, according to a national survey commissioned by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). In the survey, which is the first of its kind to be carried out in Scotland, commercial and industrial waste producers were questioned on their waste management practices during 2004.
The survey was undertaken on behalf of SEPA by Envirocentre Ltd and MEL Research. Napier University Centre for Mathematics and Statistics carried out the statistical analysis of the survey results.
Construction and demolition companies were not included in the survey, but this sector is known to have produced an additional 7m tonnes of waste in 2004. Nor was the agricultural sector included.
Results from the survey show that more than two thirds of waste was produced by commerce and less than one third came from industry. The wholesale and retail trade produced the most amount of waste, closely followed by the hotel and restaurant sector.
Almost 1m tonnes of the waste produced by businesses was paper and cardboard and over 6m tonnes was mixed waste.
However the results need to be treated with a degree of caution as estimates from this type of survey are subject to large confidence intervals and the results are therefore indicative only.
Only half of the companies surveyed knew how all of their waste was managed while three quarters of companies stated that they produced waste that could be recycled but was not.
SEPA spokesperson, John Ferguson, said:
“The survey will provide valuable information on commercial and industrial wastes to underpin the future development of the National Waste Strategy for Scotland and, in particular, the delivery of the commercial and industrial waste framework which is being developed by SEPA and the Scottish Executive and will be published shortly."
"The framework will seek to address current business needs to access more recycling services and identify opportunities for businesses to segregate more of the mixed waste so that it can be dealt with more sustainably.”
Recycling services for businesses are continuing to increase as more facilities become available. The Waste Aware Scotland campaign has produced a business recycling directory providing information on local and national recycling and reuse services from a range of providers.
The results of the survey will enable Scotland to report data to the EU under the Waste Statistics Regulation, will provide information to underpin the development of the National Waste Strategy for Scotland and will inform the development of future waste producer surveys.
Further information on the survey can be found on the SEPA website.
[Source - SEPA]