Deposit Return Scheme Consultation: packaging material recycling rates: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01875
Date received: 10 July 2018
Date responded: 2 August 2018

Information requested

Information on how the current packaging material recycling rates are calculated as detailed in the Scottish Government's Consultation – A Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland Consultation. Specifically, the detail of the individual calculations and the data sources used.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

• The household recycling rates used in the consultation come from compositional analysis data from studies carried out in Scotland and national waste data from SEPA:

https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/

• Kerbside compositional data was taken from the fieldwork for the study described here: https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/composition-household-waste-kerbside, and scaled to Scotland along similar lines to those described in that study's methodology section, but the composition was matched to 2016 SEPA Waste Data Flow data (i.e. it is more recent than this publication, which used data from earlier years).

• Non-kerbside data (i.e. for HWRCs and Bring sites) was derived differently.

• For recyclate collected, Local Authority (LA) data in Waste Data Flow (2016) was used where filled in by LAs. Where data was missing the difference between total amounts of household waste and kerbside weights was calculated.

• For residual waste, compositional data was taken from here - http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Scotland_MSW_report_final.pdf - and tonnages from HWRC returns in Waste Data Flow (2016).

• Litter compositional data were sourced from Zero Waste Scotland's 2013 report, Scotland's Litter Problem:

https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/Scotland%27s%20Litter%20P roblem%20-%20Full%20Final%20Report.pdf

• In contrast to the other sectors, overall hospitality tonnages were calculated from onmarket container weights, not waste composition measurement, as no suitable compositional study was available. Kantar panel data for soft drinks and coffee cups is the part-basis for out of home consumption container weights, whilst an estimate for alcohol sales out of home was constructed from three sources. Beer consumption data for the UK was scaled to Scotland. NHS data for alcohol consumption (by unit) was scaled to containers by applying a standard number of units per container for different product categories. These numbers were sense checked against the alcohol/non-alcohol ratios for in-home.

• Sector recycling rates for hospitality are not available. For items where consumption is likely to be on-premise (i.e. glass) very high current recycling was assumed, in line with the Waste (Scotland) Regulations requiring separate collection. For other items, figures closer to household data were preferred, reflecting the dependence on consumer behaviour, and likelihood of items sold travelling offsite.

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because these meetings were hosted by Zero Waste Scotland, therefore they will hold all relevant information. However, you may wish to contact Zero Waste Scotland who may be able to help you. http://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses