Scottish organic waste can “provide environmental and economic opportunities” according to a report due to be published this week by Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Water (CREW).
The report’s findings, made by experts from Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, will be used to help find new ways to recover more resources from the waste Scotland manages and generates.
With this goal in mind, environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham MSP today (21 June) announced a new partnership between Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). At the Institute of Water’s Shaping the Future Conference in Glasgow, Cunningham also told delegates both organisations have signed a Sustainable Growth Agreement (SGA).
Scottish Water said the agreement “provides a focus for priority areas for both Scottish Water and SEPA on the environmental and economic opportunities of a circular economy and builds on the organisation’s work to recycle over 115 thousand tonnes of organic material from wastewater for use as a fuel, soil conditioner or fertiliser.”
It is hoped the partnership will contribute to the Scottish government’s target of total decarbonisation of energy by 2050, and will also help achieve the carbon emissions reduction target of 80 per cent by 2050, set out by the Scottish government’s Climate Change Plan.
Under the agreement, SEPA and Scottish Water have pledged to develop, trial and then seek to deliver ways to:
- Manage rainwater and waste water drainage
- Generate wealth not waste by maximising recovery of resources back into a circular economy
- Invest in protecting the quality of Scotland’s water environment
Cunningham said of the new alliance: “It will look for innovative ways to deliver more sustainable wastewater services, and to recover and recycle the resources that are contained within Scotland’s sewage.”
Douglas Millican, chief executive of Scottish Water, added: “By being forward thinking in our approaches to achieving further value from waste water, smartly managing rain water flows into our sewer networks and protecting and harnessing our water environment, we can look ahead to the future with confidence.”