About Waste

Waste is what we throw away because we no longer have a use for it. Some people might call waste rubbish, refuse or garbage. Waste includes materials that have no real value, but also materials that are disposed of despite the fact that they contain valuable resources or have not come to the end of their useful life.

In 2007, Scotland produced nearly 3.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste, 31.2% of this was recycled or composted. The Scottish Government are hoping to increase this figure to 70% by 2025, as part of their commitment to a Zero Waste Scotland.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is defined as all of the (solid) waste collected by (or on behalf of) the local authority. This includes all waste produced by households and some from businesses.

Please visit the Glossary for more definitions of waste related terms.

Sending waste to landfill leads to a loss of valuable resources. Landfill sites also release methane, a gas that contributes to climate change. Badly managed landfill sites can also pollute surface and ground water and cause problems with odour, vermin and flies.

The environment is also affected when we replace the things that we throw away with new products. This is because energy and natural resources are needed to make new items.

If we were to continue to send all of our waste to landfill and replace things with products made from natural resources then future generations could be faced with poor environmental quality and a limited availability of natural resources.

In recent years there has been a general shift to give environmental issues greater importance across the world. Increased knowledge about issues such as climate change has led to new legislation and a shift in public attitudes towards waste and recycling.

In January 2008, the new Scottish Government outlined ambitious plans for a Zero Waste Scotland. The aim of the plan is to "maximise recycling, minimise waste and ensure that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled."

You can find out more in the Waste Strategy section of this website.

The 'waste hierarchy' ranks the different ways in which we can dispose of our waste in order of sustainability, or relative environmental benefits.


Although it is the least sustainable option with the worst effect on the environment, disposal to landfill is still the main method of waste disposal in Scotland. The most sustainable and environmentally-friendly option is to reduce of the amount of waste we produce in the first place. However, we also need to start reusing items and increasing the amount of things that we recycle.

You can find out more about what you can do in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle sections of this website. You can find practical ways to take action at our Sort It website.

According to the Scottish Government 'zero waste' means reducing the unnecessary use of raw materials; re-using products where possible and recovering value from products when they reach the end of their lives either through recycling, composting or energy recovery.

The current targets that have been set down by the Scottish Government as part it’s commitment to Zero Waste are:

• To recycle or compost 70% of household waste by 2025.
• To reduce the amount of household waste sent to landfill to 5% by 2025.
• To limit the amount of household waste that is used to generate energy to 25% by 2025.

You can find out more in the Waste Strategy section of this website.