Environmental and Clean Technologies

Food recycling scheme launched

Posted in Main category on July 28, 2010

First Minister Alex Salmond has launched a scheme that recycles food waste.

The Commercial Food Waste Collection Service, run by Keenan Recycling, creates BSI accredited compost from items such as leftover food, coffee grounds, cups and paper towels collected from businesses and restaurants in the North East.

Keenan Recycling, which is based at New Deer in Aberdeenshire, already recycles green waste from a number of Scottish local authorities and food waste for Aberdeen City Council.

The Scottish Government published its Zero Waste Plan last month. It sets out key actions and new targets to tackle the near 20 million tonnes of waste produced in Scotland every year.

The plan focuses on transforming waste into a valuable resource which can be used to make new products, generate renewable energy, heat and fertiliser with the potential to create over 2,000 jobs.

The Government plans to introduce legislation requiring mandatory food waste collections by 2013, leading to savings for local authorities. This will increase the quality of other waste that can be separated and recycled for value.

Grant Keenan, Managing Director of Keenan Recycling, said:

"We are delighted that the First Minister is supporting the Commercial Food Waste Collection service as it is a major step to reduce landfill waste in Scotland and particularly in the North-east. Many companies already recycle the usual cans, plastic, cardboard and paper but food waste is the final piece in the recycling jigsaw.

"Our collection service can be used by a variety of companies and we are already working with a number of firms in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, including large oil companies, waste management companies, hotels, colleges and shopping centres."

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Posted in Main category on June 23, 2010

The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has attacked yesterday’s emergency budget as a missed opportunity to provide green industry with a vital boost.

The EIC is the lead trade association for the UK’s environmental technology and services industry, with over 270 Member Companies. EIC represents the main environmental sectors including climate change, water, air, contaminated land, waste, transport.

Danny Stevens, Policy Director at the EIC said:

“In the run up to yesterday’s budget the UK’s environmental industry was optimistic that the Government would today lay the foundation for low carbon and sustainable economic growth, driving investment in new high growth green businesses, helping to create new jobs and putting the UK at the forefront of a £3tr global market place for environmental goods and services. Sadly, this afternoon it is left ruing a missed opportunity.

“Reductions in public spending and the urgency with which the Government has committed to tackling the budget deficit severely restricted the tools the Treasury had at its disposal to drive investment in green industries. Even so, today the Chancellor sidestepped the most effective tool he has – using the tax regime to put an effective price on pollution. By failing to translate environmental damage into immediate price signals today’s Budget simply reinforces the huge market failure that continues to allow the exploitation of our environment free of charge - cost of pollution is borne by the British public, not by the polluter.

“Putting a fair and predictable price on environmental damage means developing market mechanisms that price in the true environmental costs of doing business. This could have been achieved at a low cost to the Treasury through innovative funding mechanisms such as Tax Increment Financing; mobilising private sector investment through, inter alia, an Environmental Investment Institution; and targeted fiscal and monetary incentives for green technologies.”

Click here for details of the upcoming Holyrood magazine Environmental and Clean Technologies conference being held in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 October.

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Energy from waste potential outlined

Posted in Main category on June 18, 2010

A new report on Scotland’s energy from waste potential has found that three per cent of the country’s total energy requirements could be fulfilled from waste that can’t be reused or recycled in other ways.

The Sustainable Development Commission Scotland report produced for the Scottish Government marks the first time that the potential of waste to energy technologies, which include incineration of solid waste and anaerobic digestion with the capture of biogas, have been outlined. When broken down, the results show that: heat only plants could meet six per cent of Scotland’s existing heat needs; electricity produced from energy from waste facilities could meet eight per cent of demand; and heat and power waste treatment plants could meet three per cent of the total heat and enlectrcity demand.

Due to concerns that developments in energy from waste could result in less efforts to minimise waste production, there is a 25 per cent cap on the amount of solid waste that can be incinerated and the results of the study are in line with this limit.

Energy Minister Jim Mather said: “Our Zero Waste Plan outlines how we can all prevent waste, increase recycling and reuse valuable resources. Yet energy from waste has a part to play in a low carbon society where all efforts have been made to reduce, re-use and recycle valuable resources that would otherwise be buried in landfill.”

He added: “This useful report highlights the potentially significant contribution of waste to our heat and electricity needs. Electricity only generation is, however, generally wasteful due to the loss of heat to the atmosphere so care must be taken to ensure we get the maximum energy output from waste by utilising heat wherever possible.”

Professor Jan Bebbington, Vice Chair of Sustainable Development Commission Scotland, which compiled the report, said: “Strong performance in waste minimisation and recycling can go hand in hand with the use of energy from waste as part of an integrated strategy. This SDC Scotland report shows what the potential is and helps the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste aspiration move forward. We believe the potential for energy from waste can be developed as part of creating low carbon communities across Scotland.”

Councillor Alison Hay, COSLA's Regeneration and Sustainable Development Spokesperson said: “Energy from waste can provide a valuable contribution to sustainable development, the delivery of a low carbon Scottish economy and the achievement of zero waste in Scotland. COSLA believes that energy from waste has an essential part to play along with waste prevention, re-use and recycling activities in a zero waste society.

"The report's identification of the various heat and/or electricity generation scenarios is welcomed. We see energy from waste include direct combustion as well as the creation and use of biogas. In either case the efficient use of heat and/or electricity locally will be important. However, the exact choice of energy from waste plant should be arrived at locally, where an analysis shows that such an approach achieves the smallest carbon emissions.”

Holyrood magazine’s conference on Environment and Clean Technologies will take place on Tuesday 27 October 2010. To book your place and take advantage of our early bird discount, please click here.

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Holyrood’s Delivering 2020 Conference: First Minister announces £7.7m boost for low carbon vehicles

Posted in Main category on June 16, 2010

First Minister Alex Salmond has announced the launch of a £4.3m initiative to encourage Scotland’s public services to use low carbon vehicles and a £3.4m green bus scheme to encourage the purchase of eco-friendly buses.

Speaking to delegates at today’s Holyrood magazine’s 2020 conference where Scotland’s target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, Salmond explained that local authorities will receive ‘bridging’ funding this year to cover the difference in cost between purchasing conventionally powered vehicles and low carbon alternatives. Other public sector bodies will be offered funding to develop charging facilities for low carbon vehicles, while the green bus scheme will provide incentives for choosing low-carbon models.

Salmond said: “Scotland has established world-leading targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and so tackle climate change. Meeting those targets will require a wide range of actions, from reducing, re-using and recycling waste at home and at work to becoming more energy efficient and shifting our economy from carbon-heavy power sources to clean, green alternatives, particularly offshore where we have huge, untapped potential.

“Our Climate Change Delivery Plan commits us to almost completely decarbonise road transport by 2050, with significant progress to be made by 2030. The two schemes I am announcing today will significantly help public bodies and bus operators on that journey. The low carbon vehicle scheme will enable local authorities and other public agencies to invest in eco-friendly vans and cars this year and help drive down air-polluting emissions. The green bus scheme will also provide a fresh incentive to operators to purchase eco-friendly vehicles for their fleet.

“The Scottish Government is making a record £31 million pound investment in sustainable and active travel this year. This is in addition to the £10 million we are investing, along with £5 million from local authorities, over three years to create seven sustainable travel demonstration communities, from Dumfries to Kirkwall.”

Funding for council vehicles will be allocated later this year through Community Planning Partnerships, following an agreement with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Commenting on this, COSLA’s Regeneration & Sustainable Development spokesperson Cllr Alison Hay said: “The funding is very welcome and will be helpful to local authorities in establishing demonstration projects. Councils are working towards achieving significant drop in the carbon emissions from the vans and cars we use in delivering services. The vehicles are currently very expensive and we need to start work on assessing the practicalities of using them. Our trials will help us see if the new cars and vans are cost effective and can deliver the expected savings from cheaper fuel and lower maintenance costs.”

Holyrood’s Delivering on 2020 conference is being held at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh and brings together experts on climate change and low carbon technology from across the UK, Europe and world to encourage debate on achieving Scotland’s targets.

Other speakers include: Georg Adamowitsch, the European Union’s North Sea Grid Co-ordinator, Ahmed Moosa, the Maldives' Special Envoy for Science & Technology and Ian Marchant, Convenor of the Scottish 2020 Climate Group and Chief Executive, Scottish and Southern Energy. Further details are available at http://www.deliveringon2020.com/

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Scotland’s climate change action highlighted in Europe

Posted in Main category on June 11, 2010

At a meeting of the Environment Council in Luxembourg today, ministers from across the EU were told about the action Scotland is taking to encourage a low carbon economy.

Prior to the meeting, Minister for Climate Change Stewart Stevenson met Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne to agree on the economic case for setting a EU wide target for a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases, discuss carbon capture and storage and the UK Energy Bill.

Stevenson also discussed renewable energy co-operation opportunities with Lykke Friis, Danish Minister for the Climate, Energy and Equal Rights. These discussions will be followed up by the Scottish Green Energy Centre in Aberdeen and its Danish counterparts.

Of the discussions, Stevenson said: "Scotland's ambition is already setting an example internationally to cut emissions and it is important to take every opportunity to reinforce the message that a low-carbon Europe is feasible, affordable - and ultimately unavoidable. The Environment Council has today heard our case that moving beyond the current 20 per cent emissions reduction target for 2020 is fundamental for European leadership in this area.

"We are working closely with the UK government and others in Europe to put the case that investment in low carbon technologies and industries can bring new opportunities for economic growth."

UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said: "This is a new start, with the UK Government and Scottish Government working together in making the economic case for going low carbon, including cutting EU emissions by 30 per cent.

"I had a very constructive first meeting with Stewart Stevenson before the EU Environment Council where we agreed on the advantages of taking early action. As I saw in Aberdeen recently, Scotland is already benefiting from the low carbon move, in particular with its renewable industry."

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Environmental and Clean Technologies blog

Food recycling scheme launched
First Minister Alex Salmond has launched a scheme that recycles food waste. .. Budget a missed opportunity for green industry
The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has attacked yesterday’s emergency budget as .. Energy from waste potential outlined
A new report on Scotland’s energy from waste potential has found that three per cent of the..

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