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BBC Scotland environment correspondent
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Up to 100 truckloads of Scotland’s waste will be moved each day to England once a landfill ban comes in at the end of the year, the BBC’s Disclosure has been told.
The Scottish government is banning “black bag” waste from being buried in landfill from 31 December but acknowledges that there are not currently enough incinerators to meet the extra demand.
The ban, which covers biodegradable municipal waste (BMW), will apply to pretty much all domestic and commercial waste.
Scottish ministers said any export of waste should only be viewed as a “short-term solution”.
The ban was originally meant to be in place by 2021 but was delayed because of the Covid pandemic and concerns that businesses were not ready.
It will see a string of materials banned from landfill, including non-recyclable black bag municipal waste, wood, textiles, paper and food.
Such biodegradable waste breaks down to produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is around 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Some inert material, such as ash from incinerators and building rubble, will still be allowed at landfill sites.
The Scottish government wants to stop traditional black bag waste being buried in the ground by increasing recycling rates and using more energy-from-waste incinerators.
However, four years on from the date of the original plan, environmental consultants have concluded that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish still have no home.
More waste is already being sent to incinerators – or energy-from-waste sites – but
