We were pleased to welcome Carolyn Bell as speaker at our meeting of 2nd December. Carolyn is a Technical Officer at Resource Efficient Solutions - a part of Fife Council.
Carolyn spoke about her work, which is focussed on care for the environment and specifically about the reduction, re-use, recycling and disposal of waste. We were treated to an eloquent, detailed and factual presentation of the work being done in Fife - and of the many challenges to come.
Figures for 2017 showed 55% of waste being recycled - 167,000 tonnes. Some 61% of waste has already been diverted from landfill. But that still leaves 39% as landfill and Scotland has a ‘zero waste plan’, requiring no more than 5% to landfill by 2025. It also includes a ban on biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill from 1st January 2021. The purpose of this is to reduce waste landfilled by directing residual waste to alternative treatment:
- To extract remaining resource value from the residual waste stream
- To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfilling biodegradable waste
In terms of waste management facilities, we heard that currently Fife has 11 recycling centres, 278 recycling points and 2 landfill sites.
As she progressed through her talk, Carolyn provided much interesting information about the concept of a ‘waste hierarchy’, the ‘circle of responsibilities’ for packaging materials and also Scotland’s Household Recycling Charter. Whilst many challenges clearly exist, it was nonetheless good to hear that progress is being made - and that clear plans exist in order to continue to make progress. It was fascinating to hear about the treatment of food and garden waste - the digestion process that results in useable compost - but also produces significant, recoverable amounts of heat. Carolyn was also encouraging with advice on how each one of us can contribute by reducing waste, by re-using and repairing or upcycling items where possible.
Altogether a most interesting talk on a very important matter - one that is critical for our planet. Following many questions, a vote of thanks was proposed by Steve Blaney.
