ABSTRACT
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has stated the intention that it will not seek to take up the option to postpone the implementation of Landfill Directive provisions in respect of biowaste unless it is absolutely necessary. The aim of methane reduction is central to much of the thrust of biowaste exclusion, for reasons relevant to both waste management and climate change, it seems more sensible to concern ourselves with the actual amount consigned to landfill. The operator of the materials recovery facilities (MRF) runs the recycling, bio-treatment and disposal initiatives as a single unit. Waste minimisation initiatives may have an effect on the overall biowaste situation, but often in ways which are quite different from what might initially be expected. The growing consideration of the relevance of the best practicable environmental option (BPEO) as applied to waste, not least because the concept itself encapsulates three of the four major goals of sustainable development and, thus, of sustainable waste management.
