Official Statistics: Butterflies in England: species of the wider countryside on farmland and in woodland
Trends in Butterflies in England: species of the wider countryside on farmland and in woodland.
Trends in Butterflies in England: species of the wider countryside on farmland and in woodland.
Trends in butterflies: habitat specialists and species of the wider countryside in the UK.
Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) provides more business value to SMEs than any other higher education institution in the UK.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published Official Statistics today (29 September 2020) which provide details of waste landfilled and incinerated in Scotland for calendar year 2019.
These are known as the Waste landfilled in Scotland – 2019 and Waste incinerated in Scotland – 2019 statistics and are published at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/waste-data-for-scotland
The corresponding data set for all waste generated and recycled in Scotland during 2019 will be published in March 2021.
Waste landfilled
Scotland sent 3 million tonnes of waste to landfill in 2019, a reduction of 735,807 tonnes (20%) from 2018 and a reduction of over 4 million tonnes (57%) from 2005. The total amount of waste disposed of to landfill has generally decreased steadily since 2009, following large reductions between 2007 and 2009.
The reduction was largely due to the amount of Household and similar wastes landfilled, which fell by 36% from 1.19 million tonnes in 2018 to 0.76 million tonnes in 2019.
The amount of biodegradable municipal waste disposed to landfill fell below one million tonnes for the first time. The drop to 0.7 million tonnes is a decrease of 324,486 tonnes (32%) from 2018.
Waste diverted from landfill through incineration
The total quantity of waste incinerated in Scotland in 2019 was 1.23 million tonnes, an increase of 0.52 million tonnes (72%) from 2018, and an increase of 0.82 million tonnes (199%) from 2011.
This was largely due to the Household and similar wastes incinerated, which increased by 131% from 2018 to 330,368 tonnes in 2019. The Household and similar wastes category does not include waste which has been segregated into recycling bins, only that which has gone into a general waste bin.
Waste data
Data on waste are collected to monitor policy effectiveness, and to support policy development, particularly commitments in the Scottish Government’s Making Things Last – A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.
The figures are accurate at the time of publication, however data may be updated if further revisions are necessary. Normally these revisions will be published concurrent with the next official release.
Ends
This is a Policy statement and relates to the 2019 Pollutant emissions and waste transfers from SEPA regulated industrial sites experimental Official Statistics published at 9.30 am and available on SEPA’s website at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/environmental-data/spri/. Climate changing carbon dioxide emissions from SEPA regulated industrial sites drop 57% in a decade – down 5% in the last year. 2019 Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) contains data from 1,327 regulated sites published by Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) 2019 data – this year experimental official statistics – was published today [29 September 2020] by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. This year’s data covers annual mass releases of specified pollutants to air and water and information on off-site waste transfers from 1,327 SEPA regulated industrial sites.
This is a Policy statement and relates to the 2019 Pollutant emissions and waste transfers from SEPA regulated industrial sites experimental Official Statistics published at 9.30 am and available on SEPA’s website at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/environmental-data/spri/
The Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) 2019 data – this year experimental official statistics – was published today [29 September 2020] by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. This year’s data covers annual mass releases of specified pollutants to air and water and information on off-site waste transfers from 1,327 SEPA regulated industrial sites.
Greenhouse gases
The two largest contributing pollutants in terms of emissions are carbon dioxide and methane which drive the overall greenhouse gas trend. While carbon dioxide continues to drive the overall emissions trend and remains the largest contributing pollutant in terms of the emissions for 2019, the data shows Scotland’s carbon dioxide emissions have reduced significantly in the last 10 years. Emissions of the gas are down 57 per cent in the decade and 5 per cent annually to around 11,293,146,000 kg since 2018.
Whilst overall carbon dioxide emissions fell by 5% in the last year, direct emissions from those waste and waste-water management sector facilities required to report under SPRI increased by 76% over the last decade, partly driven by a move towards waste incineration instead of landfill for residual waste management. However, their emissions of greenhouses gases remain small relative to the energy sector.
The shift away from landfill towards recycling and incineration has resulted in further reductions in direct Methane emissions. While methane does not remain in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide it is initially far more impactful on the climate because of how effectively it absorbs heat. Methane emissions decreased significantly – by 44% – over the decade to 2019, and by 4% between 2018 and 2019 to 26,777,357 kg.
2010 |
2018 |
2019 |
% change 2010-2019 |
% change 2018-2019 |
|
Carbon dioxide |
26,384,456,678 |
11,849,079,760 |
11,293,145,941 |
Down 57% |
Down 5% |
Methane |
47,912,442 |
27,878,368 |
26,777,357 |
Down 44% |
Down 4% |
Nitrous Oxide |
250,912 |
89,846 |
96,543 |
Down 61% |
Up 8% |
Hydrofluorocarbons |
1,465 |
3,513 |
1,263 |
Down 14% |
Down 64% |
Perfluorocarbons |
1,604 |
4,418 |
3,945 |
Up 146% |
Up 11% |
Sulphur Hexafluoride |
207 |
107 |
221 |
Up 7% |
Up 106% |
All measurements in kilogrammes.
Energy transition
A number of variables influence SPRI emissions. In the long term, the shift away from use of coal as a fuel is a significant factor. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector have fallen by around 70% since 2010, largely due to the closure of coal fired power stations. As emissions from the energy sector have fallen, releases from other sectors now form a greater proportion of the greenhouse gas emissions reported to SPRI.
Some of the decreases observed for these gases can be accounted for by investment in new technologies and renewables, and landfill gas recovery systems.
Wider economic drivers and the weather are other factors identified as affecting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from SPRI sites.
Circular economy
Scotland’s progress towards a circular economy is also highlighted in both SPRI and separate ‘2019 Waste landfilled in Scotland’ and ‘2019 Waste incinerated in Scotland’ Official Statistics released today by SEPA.
As Scotland reduces, reuses and recycles more than ever before, waste which cannot be recycled is now being diverted from landfill as new energy from waste (incineration) infrastructure comes online. As a consequence methane emissions from the waste sector decreased by 47% over the decade, from a high ceiling of 40,868,900 kg in 2010, to 21,575,000 kg in 2019. Capture of gas at landfill sites has also contributed to the reduction.
Consequently, as methane emissions from landfill have reduced, carbon dioxide from incineration sites have increased 83% over the last decade from a low base of 1,090,000,000 kg to 2,000,000,000 kg in 2019. Emissions from this sector are small compared to that of the energy sector.
These trends represent direct emissions of greenhouse gases from specific parts of the waste management sector. They do not take into account efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle our waste. Scotland’s Carbon Metric shows that in 2018, the overall impact of Scotland’s waste management system – taking into account reduction, recycling, incineration and landfill – was 30% less than in 2011.
Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive of SEPA, said:
“These experimental official statistics chart the progress we’ve made as a nation with our globally ambitious climate change targets, with some pollutants emitted from regulated businesses falling in the last decade. They also reflect the realism of a modern, Western European economy in transition.
“The successful businesses of tomorrow will be those that are sustainable. As Scotland’s environmental regulator, our firm focus remains to helping Scottish businesses innovate and emerge stronger and more sustainably from the current public health pandemic, enabling leadership in a decade of climate emergency.”
Minor year-to-year fluctuations in pollutants can often be attributed to changes at a few sites, due to increases or decreases in production, changing source products and new sites opening. All pollutants have a reporting threshold, below which sites do not need to report a value to SPRI. An increase in production can move a site’s releases above the threshold, giving the appearance of a larger increase.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Complete SPRI data is available in two places:
Waste landfilled in Scotland – 2019 and Waste incinerated in Scotland – 2019 Official Statistics are available on SEPA’s website at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/waste-data-for-scotland
Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI)
SPRI is a searchable database of annual mass releases of specified pollutants to air and water from SEPA regulated industrial sites. It also provides information about off-site transfers of waste from these sites. It does not assess the compliance of the facilities or the health and environmental impact of the releases. Site compliance can be found in SEPA’s Compliance Assessment Scheme results.