The SNP’s great green con: How we send 1.3m tons of rubbish abroad for recycling every year
SCOTLAND is sending more than a million tons of waste a year to be recycled outside of the country – including much of it to the Far East.
Household rubbish collected for ‘green’ disposal is among mountains of waste shipped nearly 14,000 miles to Chinese sweatshop recycling factories.
A lack of processing plants in the UK means thousands of tons of rubbish are sent abroad, creating carbon emissions that lead to further damage to the environment.
New figures show 1.3million tons of waste were sent out of Scotland in 2015, the most recent statistics available. That is more than 11 per cent of all waste generated – with nearly 600,000 tons of it leaving the UK.
The disclosure follows SNP boasts this week that recycling has reached record levels after household bin collections were slashed to fortnightly or even monthly pick-ups.
Last night Scottish Tory environment spokesman Donald Cameron warned that mass waste exportation was ‘something ministers should seek to change as a matter of urgency’.
He said: ‘It certainly seems counterproductive for people to go to the effort of recycling, only to see it shipped across the world at huge environmental cost. With this level of waste exported, the Scottish Government is missing a trick for the economy too.
‘Keeping more recycling work here would create jobs, boost the economy and help the carbon footprint.’
According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which produced the figures, 1,335,286 tons of Scottish waste were exported in 2015.
Total waste produced in Scotland that year was 11.6million tons, which means exports equated to 11.5 per cent.
Some 552,038 tons were sent to Europe, 42,695 tons outwith Europe and 740,553 tons to the rest of the UK. That means a total of 594,733 tons left the UK.
The problem is caused by a shortage of processing plants and limited demand in the UK for the recycled materials.
Much of the waste is sent to China where the demand is massive. The Chinese authorities are now clamping down on the recycling industry to make it more ecologically friendly and humane. Taking the rubbish to China by ship – a voyage of around 13,600 miles – also generates huge quantities of carbon dioxide.
This week it emerged that stacks of old newspapers, cardboard and office scrap are piling up on Hong Kong’s docks, with its wastepaper sites at bursting point.
A flotilla of cargo ships laden with paper for recycling has been stuck for weeks in local waters. The city’s paper waste system has been failing since China imposed a ban on imports of 24 types of rubbish in July as part of a campaign against ‘foreign garbage’ and environmental pollution.
Each day in Hong Kong, thousands of tons of fresh paper waste are piling up with no place to go.
Exported waste includes rubber, plastic, wood and textiles. Last night Dr Richard Dixon, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, claimed the focus should be on ‘encouraging the creation of less waste’.
He said: ‘Any waste still arising should be recycled within the UK, cutting the need for excessive transportation and the accompanying emissions, ensuring that we get the dividend from this in terms of jobs and economic activity.’
SNP quango Zero Waste Scotland insisted the Scottish Government’s ‘circular economy’ strategy Making Things was keeping valuable materials in the economy.
Chief executive Iain Gulland said: ‘This includes more than £1million towards a world-class centre of plastics recycling, based in Perthshire, which will provide a domestic outlet for materials which currently leave Scotland.
‘This builds on a history of recycling bottles and jars so they can be used to make glass bottles for our whisky and beer industries.’
John Kenny, SEPA’s chief officer for circular economy, said Scotland had shown ‘global leadership’ in its vision of an increasing volume of materials being retained, recycled and reprocessed.
He added: ‘SEPA, working with partner agencies and industry, plays an active role in enabling this economic opportunity while ensuring a firm focus on driving up the quality of recyclate at home and as we export material streams abroad.’
A Scottish Government spokesman claimed waste export figures quoted included surplus material from the industrial, commercial and building sectors.
He said: ‘In the case of some materials, waste volumes generated in Scotland are insufficient to support recycling infrastructure so these are exported for recycling and reprocessing.
‘As we get better at separating and collecting our waste, we’ll have more high-quality materials which will help to develop our reprocessing sectors.’
‘Any waste should be recycled in UK’