On-farm incineration ban will hit businesses hard
The imminent outlawing of the use of drum incinerators, commonly – and legally – utilised on Scottish farms to dispose of waste plastics, is set to land the industry with a huge waste disposal bill.
The move will come as a shock to the thousands of Scottish producers who currently hold a registered exemption from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).
But following the revelation that the practice has been illegal across Europe since 2013, the Scottish Government has asked Sepa to revoke these exemptions and ensure that producers either recycle waste or pay to have it disposed of by a licensed commercial operator.
While the use of bonfires to burn the waste has long been banned, simple drum incinerators can be registered for use where it can be demonstrated that there is no threat of pollution or harm to human health.
But with estimates indicating the industry currently disposes of over 50,000 tonnes of plastic waste – including silage wrap, net wrap, fertiliser bags, chemical containers and many other items – on farm each year, the move is likely to cost the industry millions of pounds.
NFU Scotland deputy director of policy Andrew Bauer said that permission to incinerate plastic waste had been abolished elsewhere in the UK and EU several years ago – but while the union accepted that Scottish rules would need to change, his organisation had repeatedly stressed the serious practical and financial implications this would create.
Bauer said that following intense lobbying, the Scottish Government and Sepa had accepted that farmers required time to make arrangements for their farm plastics to be either collected for recycling or disposed of to a licensed facility – and the union had been told that the ban would not come into place until 1 January, 2019.
“We have been resolute in arguing that there must be a well-planned and wellcommunicated transition over a sensible timescale. We have received assurances that Sepa will regulate this issue in a pragmatic and proportionate manner.”
He added that farmers should start thinking about how they would deal with plastic waste, and once more details were available, to put in place alternative arrangements ahead of the deadline.
A spokesman for Sepa said it was drawing up an information leaflet specifically for land managers – and that it would write to the 5,000 existing registered exemptions, advising them of a change in the law and removing their exemptions from the Public Register.
“To clarify – the existing registered exemptions can currently burn plastics but Sepa will be writing to them to say that we are removing their exemption and to advise them that they will no longer be able to burn plastic,” said the spokesman.