Proposal for New Incinerators

That the Parliament notes the six strategic outline cases (SOCs), plans for municipal waste, that have been submitted by Strategic Operation Review Groups (SORGs) of local authorities for approval by the Scottish Executive to proceed to outline business case; notes the two outline business cases currently under development; notes with concern that all but one group of local authorities propose the incineration of waste and that the scale of incineration proposals, totalling two million tonnes, is far greater than that proposed in Scotland's 2003 National Waste Plan; notes that an extensive and inclusive process was undertaken to establish 11 area waste plans each containing a best practicable environmental option for dealing with waste; is aware that incineration risks encouraging the generation of waste because incinerators require to process certain volumes of waste in order to remain viable; is aware that incineration results in loss of potentially useful materials at the same time as encouraging further resource depletion through use of virgin raw materials; is aware that incineration can cause pollution, including from dioxins, affecting neighbouring communities; is aware that energy from mixed waste should not be regarded as a renewable energy source as it relies on a non-renewable fuel source; understands that incineration reduces the potential for creating jobs in recycling and waste minimisation; believes that any sustainable approach to waste management must acknowledge the top-down “reduce – reuse – recycle” hierarchy and that waste minimisation and recycling are the more environmentally and socially sustainable ways of dealing with waste; recognises that many of the SOCs proposed include recycling and waste production rates which contradict commitments made in the 2003 National Waste Plan to stabilise waste generation by 2010 and recycle 55% of waste by 2020, and therefore urges Scottish Ministers to request that those SORGs which contradict the National Waste Plan’s best practicable environmental option review their SOCs to make them compatible with it.