Zero Waste Scotland

This week, the Scottish Government has bin thinking.

Today, the Zero Waste Think Tank will meet for the first time in Edinburgh. The Think Tank brings together a number of experts to discuss the best ways in which Scotland can move towards a zero waste society.

Yesterday, the Government launched the 2008 Composting at Home Campaign in Fife. Composting of household and garden waste plays a vital part in a zero waste Scotland. The composting campaign has been running for the previous four years, distributing over 160,000 compost bins to Scottish households, with more bins planned for distribution this year. In Fife, where this year’s campaign was launched, recycling and composting levels are well ahead of the overall Scottish figure, at 36.2 per cent. Fife is also the first council in Scotland to commit to the principle of sending zero waste to landfill, by 2020.

I think that the idea of zero waste is an important one. With so many of the world’s future problems attributable to climate change, sometimes this hard line, no messing, approach really works. And at the end of the day, with recycling and composting capabilities as they are, this is something that is hopefully achievable. Still, we will wait to see, whether the zero waste target in 2020 is actually hit, and look out for the rest of the UK getting in on the act as well.