Skip to content
Please be aware the content below has been generated by an AI model from a source PDF.

Formal Board Paper 1 Annex 1.10 - Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Form­al Board Paper 1 Annex 1.10

13 March 2026

Paper 1

Annex 1.10

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Sus­tain­able places

Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report

March 2026

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 1 of 73

Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

March 2026

Sched­ule contents

Require­ments addressed in this sched­ule: 2 Links to evid­ence: 3 Sum­mary of evid­ence: 7 Policy con­text: 7 Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4: 7 Legis­la­tion and nation­al doc­u­ments: 8 Key agency doc­u­ments: 18 Nation­al Park Author­ity doc­u­ments: 20 Loc­al author­ity doc­u­ments: 22 Com­munity action plans: 28 Baseline: 32

This sec­tion provides baseline inform­a­tion on the fol­low­ing matters:

  • The types of waste man­age­ment facil­it­ies serving the Nation­al Park: 32
  • The capa­city of waste man­age­ment facil­it­ies serving the Nation­al Park: 50
  • House­hold waste and recyc­ling rates: 55
  • Pub­lic invest­ment in recyc­ling infra­struc­ture: 65
  • Cur­rent approach to developer con­tri­bu­tions: 67
  • Waste infra­struc­ture implic­a­tions for Pro­posed Plan: 67

Evid­ence gaps: 68 Sum­mary of stake­hold­er engage­ment: 68 Sum­mary of implic­a­tions for Pro­posed Plan: 69 State­ments of agree­ment: 70 State­ments of dis­pute: 73

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 2 of 73

Require­ments addressed in this schedule

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended (CNPA003), regard­ing the issue addressed in this schedule.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used,
Sec­tion 15(5)(d)the infra­struc­ture of the dis­trict (includ­ing com­mu­nic­a­tions, trans­port and drain­age sys­tems, sys­tems for the sup­ply of water and energy, and health care and edu­ca­tion facilities),
Sec­tion 15(5)(e)how that infra­struc­ture is used,
Sec­tion 16(2)(a)To take into account-
i. The Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work and
ii. Any loc­al out­comes improve­ment plan (with­in the mean­ing of sec­tion 6 of the Com­munity Empower­ment (Scot­land) Act 2015) for the part of their dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan relates,
iii. Any registered loc­al place plan (see sched­ule 19) that is for the part of their dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan relates.
Sec­tion 16(2)(b)Are to have regard to such inform­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tions as may be prescribed.
Sec­tion 16(2)©May have regard to such oth­er inform­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tions as appear to them to be relevant.
Sec­tion 16B(3)(a)The evid­ence report is to set out the plan­ning authority’s view on the mat­ters lis­ted in sec­tion 15(5) for land in the part of the authority’s dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan will relate,
Sec­tion 16B(3)(e)Include such oth­er mat­ters as are prescribed.
Sec­tion 16B(4)©The evid­ence report is also to include a state­ment on the extent to which the views expressed under para­graphs (a) and (b) have been taken into account in the report.
Sec­tion 264AIn the exer­cise, with respect to any land in a Nation­al Park, of any power under the plan­ning Acts, spe­cial atten­tion shall be paid to the desirab­il­ity of exer­cising the power con­sist­ently with the Nation­al Park Plan as adop­ted under sec­tion 12(7)(a) of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 (asp 10).

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 3 of 73

Table 2 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2023 (CNPA684), regard­ing the issue addressed in this schedule.

Reg­u­la­tionRequire­ment
Reg­u­la­tion 9(2)(e)(vii)The inform­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tions are — …
The fol­low­ing plans and strategies, inso­far as relat­ing to the loc­al devel­op­ment plan area —…
The nation­al waste man­age­ment plan,

Links to evidence

Inter­na­tion­al documents

  • CNPA1246 — Dir­ect­ive 2008/98/EC of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Council

Legis­la­tion

  • CNPA003 — Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997
  • CNPA004 — Nation­al Park (Scot­land) Act 2000
  • CNPA348 — Cli­mate Change (Emis­sions Reduc­tion Tar­gets) (Scot­land) Act 2019
  • CNPA389 — Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Act 1990
  • CNPA395 — Waste (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2012
  • CNPA402 — Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Bill 2024
  • CNPA634 — Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Bill as passed
  • CNPA684 — Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2023
  • CNPA749 — Loc­al Gov­ern­ment (Scot­land) Act 1973
  • CNPA875 — Roads (Scot­land) Act 1984

Nation­al documents

  • CNPA008 — Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4
  • CNPA060 — Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 – update
  • CNPA107 — Infra­struc­ture Plan for Scot­land 2021 – 22 to 2025 – 26
  • CNPA394 — Scot­land Zero Waste Plan 2010
  • CNPA396 — Apply­ing the waste hier­archy: guidance

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 4 of 73

  • CNPA397 — Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Inde­pend­ent Review of the Role of Incin­er­a­tion in the Waste Hier­archy in Scot­land (report)
  • CNPA400 — Mak­ing Things Last: A Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Strategy for Scotland
  • CNPA401 — Scotland’s Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Waste Route Map to 2030 Con­sulta­tion (2024)
  • CNPA403 — The Charter for House­hold Recycling
  • CNPA416 — Zero Waste Scot­land: Recyc­ling Improve­ment Fund — Small Grant Scheme
  • CNPA417 — Zero Waste Scot­land – Recyc­ling Improve­ment Fund
  • CNPA422 — Net Zero Scot­land Scotland’s Plan
  • CNPA547 — Plan­ning Cir­cu­lar 4 / 2025 Plan­ning Oblig­a­tions and Good Neigh­bour Agreements
  • CNPA1257 — Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment: Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment 2023 to 2024
  • CNPA1258 — Bute House Agree­ment ends
  • CNPA1259 — Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment News: £70 mil­lion fund to improve recycling
  • CNPA1260 — Food waste reduc­tion action plan

Key agency documents

  • CNPA116 — His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land Cli­mate Action Plan 2020 — 2025
  • CNPA244 — NatureScot: Devel­op­ing with Nature Guidance
  • CNPA414 — Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency House­hold waste data
  • CNPA415 — Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency Waste sites and capa­city data
  • CNPA942 — High­lands and Islands Enter­prise Strategy 2023- 2028

Nation­al Park Author­ity documents

  • CNPA010 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022
  • CNPA028 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Gypsy and Trav­el­ler 2024
  • CNPA058 — Grant­own Gram­mar School Place Stand­ard Tool Engage­ment 2024
  • CNPA334 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Deliv­ery Pro­gramme 2025
  • CNPA445 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
  • CNPA528 — Cairngorms 2030
  • CNPA833 — Cairngorms Loc­al devel­op­ment plan place stand­ard tool engage­ment with Kin­gussie High School Youth For­um 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 5 of 73

  • CNPA834 — Loc­al devel­op­ment plan place stand­ard tool engage­ment with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Juni­or Rangers 2025
  • CNPA835 — Cairngorms Loc­al devel­op­ment plan place stand­ard tool engage­ment with Aviemore Neurodi­versity Sup­port Youth Group 2025
  • CNPA1104 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan engage­ment – gami­fic­a­tion approach 2025
  • CNPA1105 — Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan engage­ment – Plan­ning Power with Cairngorms 2030
  • CNPA1350 — Top­ic: Zero waste — engage­ment version

Loc­al author­ity documents

  • CNPA237 — Badenoch and Strath­spey Area Com­mit­tee Item 6: Badenoch and Strath­spey Area Plan
  • CNPA359 — High­land Coun­cil Net Zero Strategy
  • CNPA367 — Perth and Kinross Cli­mate Change Strategy & Action Plan
  • CNPA404 — High­land Coun­cil Our Future High­land: Cor­por­ate Plan
  • CNPA405 — Aber­deen­shire Waste Strategy 2019 — 2023
  • CNPA406 — Angus Coun­cil Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Strategy
  • CNPA407 — Angus Coun­cil Plan 2023 – 28 – Deliv­er­ing ser­vices for people
  • CNPA408 — Perth and Kinross Waste Man­age­ment Plan 2010 – 2025
  • CNPA409 — Perth and Kinross State of the Envir­on­ment Report
  • CNPA418 — Long-term Waste Man­age­ment, Com­munit­ies and Place Com­mit­tee paper from the meet­ing on 27 Novem­ber 2024, Agenda Item 1, report num­ber CP/31/4
  • CNPA419 — High­land Coun­cil: Changes to your bins (webpage)
  • CNPA420 — Moray Coun­cil: Kerb­side Col­lec­tion Policy
  • CNPA526 – Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil — What hap­pens to your recycling
  • CNPA636 — Aber­deen­shire Loc­al Out­comes Improve­ment Plan 2017 – 2027
  • CNPA637 — Angus Com­munity Plan 2022 – 2030
  • CNPA638 — High­land Out­come Improve­ment Plan 2024 – 2027
  • CNPA639 — Moray Loc­al Out­come Improve­ment Plan v2
  • CNPA640 — Perth and Kinross Com­munity Plan 2022 – 2032
  • CNPA1009 — Perth and Kinross Recyc­ling Centre Permits
  • CNPA1010 — Aber­deen­shire Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2028 Evid­ence Report Zero Waste
  • CNPA1011 — Angus Coun­cil Recyc­ling Centres
  • CNPA1012 – Moray Coun­cil Recyc­ling Guide
  • CNPA1013 — Moray Coun­cil Recyc­ling Centres and Points

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 6 of 73

  • CNPA1091 — 2024 – 2027 HOIP Deliv­ery Plan
  • CNPA1262 — Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil: Agenda item: Waste Strategy 2019 – 2023
  • CNPA1287 — High­land Coun­cil Embraces Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy to Drive Net Zero Goals

Com­munity Action Plans

  • CNPA063 — Aviemore, Rothiemurchus and Glen­more Com­munity Action Plan 2024
  • CNPA064 — Blair Atholl and Stru­an Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA065 – Grant­own-on-Spey Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA066 — Kin­gussie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA119 — Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Action Plan 2023
  • CNPA121 — Brae­mar Com­munity Action Plan 2017
  • CNPA122 — Car­rbridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA125 — Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing for­ward to 2030
  • CNPA127 — Kin­craig and loc­al­ity Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA129 — Lag­gan Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA131 — Nethy Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA132 — New­ton­more Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA133 — Strath­don Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA331 — Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030
  • CNPA374 — Boat of Garten Action Plan: Look­ing to 2030

Data sources

  • CNPA439 — Scotland’s Census
  • CNPA563 – Nation­al Records of Scot­land Rebased pop­u­la­tion estim­ates, Scot­land, mid-2011 to mid-2021
  • CNPA1263 — Sus­tain­able Strathspey
  • CNPA1264 — Scot­tish Com­munit­ies Cli­mate Action Network
  • CNPA1265 — High­lands and Islands Cli­mate Hub
  • CNPA1266 — Moray Waste Busters
  • CNPA1267 — High­land and Islands Case Studies
  • CNPA1268 — ILM Highland

Con­sulta­tion material

  • CNPA1340 — Evid­ence report engage­ment responses
  • CNPA014 — Email — High­lands and Islands Enter­prise on changes to schedules

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 7 of 73

Sum­mary of evidence

Policy con­text

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

The Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (CNPA008) sets out the nation­al spa­tial strategy for Scot­land. Its focus on the three main policy themes of sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places aligns with Scotland’s aim of deliv­er­ing on the United Nations Sus­tain­able Goals. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, in rela­tion to Infra­struc­ture and Ser­vices, aims to deliv­er an infra­struc­ture first approach to land use planning.

Policy 12 aims to reduce and reuse con­struc­tion waste mater­i­als and build facil­it­ies to sup­port Scotland’s cir­cu­lar eco­nomy mod­el. If appro­pri­ate loc­al devel­op­ment plans should identi­fy appro­pri­ate loc­a­tions for addi­tion­al waste man­age­ment infra­struc­ture for example recyc­ling and reuse plants.

Policy 18 spe­cific­ally addresses the infra­struc­ture first approach inten­ded to ensure infra­struc­ture con­sid­er­a­tions are addresses at the earli­est stage of the devel­op­ment plan pro­cess. The Pro­posed Plan needs to ensure exist­ing infra­struc­ture assets are being used sus­tain­ably and make pro­vi­sion for pri­or­it­ising low-car­bon solu­tions in devel­op­ment. Pro­posed infra­struc­ture inter­ven­tions need to ensure they meet the needs of the com­munity they are inten­ded to serve. Accord­ing to the policy, loc­al devel­op­ment plans must:

  • Reflect evid­ence-based decisions about the cur­rent infrastructure’s capa­city, con­di­tion, needs and deliv­er­ab­il­ity with­in the Plan area.
  • Con­sider the need for addi­tion­al cross bound­ary infra­struc­ture where a need is identified.
  • Put for­ward a spa­tial strategy that reflects the infra­struc­ture pri­or­it­ies, and where, how and by whom they will be delivered.
  • Put for­ward a meth­od of cal­cu­la­tion for the type, level and loc­a­tion of the fin­an­cial or in-kind con­tri­bu­tions required, spe­cify­ing which devel­op­ment (sites) these will be required for.

Plans should align with rel­ev­ant nation­al, region­al, and loc­al infra­struc­ture plans and policies and take account of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment infra­struc­ture invest­ment hier­archy and sus­tain­able travel and invest­ment hier­arch­ies in devel­op­ing the spa­tial strategy. Con­sist­ent early engage­ment and col­lab­or­a­tion between rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers will bet­ter inform decisions on land use and investment.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 8 of 73

The North region’s spa­tial pri­or­it­ies, which cov­er the Nation­al Park and are rel­ev­ant to this policy area are:

  • Pro­tect envir­on­ment­al assets and stim­u­late invest­ment in nat­ur­al and engin­eered solu­tions to cli­mate change and nature res­tor­a­tion, whilst decar­bon­ising trans­port and build­ing resi­li­ent connections.
  • Sup­port loc­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment by mak­ing sus­tain­able use of the areas’ world­class envir­on­ment­al assets to innov­ate and lead green­er growth.

Also, of rel­ev­ance to the region and this policy area is Nation­al Devel­op­ment 4: Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Mater­i­als Man­age­ment Facil­it­ies. This nation­al devel­op­ment sup­ports the devel­op­ment of facil­it­ies required to achieve a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. This sec­tor will provide a range of busi­ness, skills and employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies as part of a just trans­ition to a net zero economy.

Legis­la­tion and nation­al documents

Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 (CNPA004). As out­lined in Sched­ule 1: Plan out­comes, these will be amended by the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Scot­land (Scot­land) Bill (CNPA634) once enacted. These are, as to be amended by the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Bill:

  • To con­serve and enhance the area’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al heritage.
  • To pro­mote sus­tain­able man­age­ment and use of the area’s nat­ur­al resources.
  • To pro­mote pub­lic under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the area’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al heritage.
  • To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic, social and cul­tur­al devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

All of the aims are rel­ev­ant to the mat­ters dis­cussed in this sched­ule. The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Waste (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2012

The legis­la­tion (CNPA395) intro­duced changes to how mater­i­als are man­aged by the industry and busi­nesses out­lining the fol­low­ing actions:

  • Requires busi­nesses and the pub­lic sec­tor to sep­ar­ate met­al, plastic, glass, paper and card.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 9 of 73

  • Requires food busi­nesses to sep­ar­ate food waste for collection.
  • Loc­al author­it­ies are oblig­ated to provide recyc­ling ser­vices to homes.
  • Bans met­al, plastic, glass, paper, card and food from being land­filled or incinerated.
  • Requires incin­er­at­ors to sep­ar­ate metals and plastics before burn­ing waste.

Bans bio­de­grad­able muni­cip­al waste from being landfilled.

Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan 2010

The Zero Waste Plan (CNPA394) sets the stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for waste policy for Scot­land, informed by improved under­stand­ing of the envir­on­ment­al con­sequences of how Scotland’s pop­u­la­tion use and dis­pose of resources, and by the (then applic­able) require­ments of European legis­la­tion. The Zero Waste Plan is under­pinned by a determ­in­a­tion to achieve the best over­all out­comes for Scotland’s envir­on­ment, by mak­ing best prac­tic­al use of the approach in the waste man­age­ment hier­archy: waste pre­ven­tion, reuse, recyc­ling and recovery.

Cur­rent tar­gets for redu­cing waste and increas­ing recyc­ling by 2025 include redu­cing total waste arising in Scot­land by 15% against 2011 levels; redu­cing food waste by 33% against 2013 levels; recyc­ling 70% of remain­ing waste and send­ing no more than 5% to land­fill. The Pro­posed Plan should sup­port deliv­ery of the tar­gets set out in the Zero Waste Plan.

Waste hier­archy

Sec­tion 34 of the Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Act 1990 (as amended) (CNPA389) makes it the duty of every­one (with the excep­tion of occu­pi­ers of domest­ic prop­er­ties in respect of the house­hold waste pro­duced at those prop­er­ties) who pro­duces, keeps or man­ages con­trolled waste, or as a broker or deal­er has con­trol of such waste, to:

  • Take all such meas­ures avail­able to that per­son as are reas­on­able in the cir­cum­stances to apply the waste hier­archy set out in Art­icle 4(1) of the Waste Dir­ect­ive (CNPA1246).
  • Take all reas­on­able steps to ensure that the waste is man­aged in man­ner which pro­motes high qual­ity recycling.

The waste hier­archy (CNPA396) ranks waste man­age­ment options accord­ing to the best envir­on­ment­al out­come tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the life­cycle of the mater­i­al. The life­cycle of a mater­i­al is an envir­on­ment­al assess­ment of all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave (for example from raw mater­i­al extrac­tion through materials

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 10 of 73

pro­cessing, man­u­fac­ture, dis­tri­bu­tion, use, repair and main­ten­ance, and dis­pos­al or recycling).

In its simplest form, the waste hier­archy gives top pri­or­ity to pre­vent­ing waste. When waste is cre­ated, it gives pri­or­ity to pre­par­ing it for reuse, then recyc­ling, then oth­er recov­ery, and last of all dis­pos­al (for example land­fill). The Pro­posed Plans should sup­port the waste hier­archy both in terms of cre­at­ing new devel­op­ment and dur­ing its operation.

With the excep­tion of tires, the waste hier­archy rank­ing applies, almost uni­ver­sally, as described in Fig­ure 1. Fur­ther inform­a­tion on apply­ing the waste hier­archy can be found in the Scot­tish Government’s apply­ing the waste hier­archy guid­ance (CNPA396).

Waste Hier­archy Image

Pre­ven­tion If you can’t pre­vent, then…

Pre­pare for reuse If you can’t pre­pare for reuse then…

Recycle If you can’t recycle, then…

Recov­er oth­er value (e.g. energy) If you can’t recov­er value, then…

Dis­pos­al Land­fill if no altern­at­ive available.

Fig­ure 1 Waste Hier­archy. Image redrawn with Nation­al Park col­ours based on Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment image, 2017 (CNPA396).

Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury?: Inde­pend­ent review of the role of incin­er­a­tion in the waste hier­archy in Scot­land (report)

The report (and the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments) (CNPA397) con­sti­tutes the Inde­pend­ent Review of the Role of Incin­er­a­tion in the Waste Hier­archy in Scot­land. The con­clu­sions drawn and sub­sequent recom­mend­a­tion are dir­ec­ted towards Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and loc­al gov­ern­ment. As the Nation­al Park Author­ity does not admin­is­ter waste col­lec­tion or treat­ment, there is little dir­ect applic­a­tion or rel­ev­ance to the report with­in the con­text of the work under­taken by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is, how­ever, the stat­utory plan­ning author­ity for the Nation­al Park area, and as such Recom­mend­a­tion 4 of the report can be seen as

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 11 of 73

hav­ing poten­tial applic­a­tion in the Nation­al Park and be sup­por­ted by, and reflec­ted in, the Pro­posed Plan.

Recom­mend­a­tion 4 states that ​‘Effect­ive imme­di­ately, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment should ensure that no fur­ther plan­ning per­mis­sion (i.e., bey­ond that already in place) is gran­ted to incin­er­a­tion infra­struc­ture with­in the scope of this Review unless bal­anced by an equal or great­er clos­ure of capa­city. The only excep­tions to this should be those out­lined in Recom­mend­a­tion 10’.

Recom­mend­a­tion 10 states that ​‘Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment should urgently work with loc­al author­it­ies in remote and rur­al areas of Scot­land without a settled resid­ual waste man­age­ment solu­tion to meet the Ban to explore options that might, if fully jus­ti­fied, lead to the cre­ation of a small amount of addi­tion­al capacity’.

The review also places an emphas­is on improv­ing com­munity engage­ment with regard to improve­ments or reviews of exist­ing waste man­age­ment pro­jects. The Review reports that the stand­ard of com­munity engage­ment by both pub­lic and private entit­ies var­ied greatly, recom­mend­ing the gen­er­al level should be improved. In part, an attrib­ut­ing factor was the poor quant­ity and avail­ab­il­ity of rel­ev­ant data available.

Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 – update

The doc­u­ment (CNPA060) provides an update to the 2018 Cli­mate Change Plan. Since that Plan, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has set new ambi­tious tar­gets to end its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change by 2045. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have com­mit­ted to reduce emis­sions by 75% by 2030 (com­pared with 1990) and to net zero by 2045. As Scot­land emerged from the Cov­id 19 pan­dem­ic the Gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fied an oppor­tun­ity to rebuild the eco­nomy in a way that deliv­ers a green­er, fairer and more equal soci­ety. This Plan sets out the Government’s approach to deliv­er­ing a green recov­ery and sets out a path­way to deliv­er its cli­mate change tar­gets. In line with the 2018 plan, the focus is on the peri­od up to 2032. The Pro­posed Plan should sup­port the deliv­ery of the out­comes in the Cli­mate Change Plan.

It sets out a num­ber of out­comes, that are sup­por­ted by policies and pro­pos­als, relat­ing to waste and the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. These are as follows.

The out­come to reduce waste to land­fill is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policies:

  • End land­filling of bio­de­grad­able muni­cip­al waste by 2025, reduce the per­cent­age of all waste sent to land­fill to 5% by 2025 and recycle 70% of all waste by 2025 by:

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 12 of 73

  • Devel­op­ing a new route map to reduce waste and meet our waste and recyc­ling tar­gets for 2025 in a way that max­im­ises their car­bon sav­ings potential.
  • Devel­op­ing a post-2025 route map for the waste and resources sec­tor, identi­fy­ing how the sec­tor will con­trib­ute towards Scotland’s jour­ney towards net zero in the peri­od to 2030 and beyond.
  • Estab­lish­ing a £70m fund to improve loc­al author­ity recyc­ling col­lec­tion infra­struc­ture. In line with EU require­ments, fur­ther pro­mot­ing reuse and recyc­ling ensure sep­ar­ate col­lec­tion of tex­tiles by 2025; and ensur­ing that bio-waste (e.g. garden waste), is either sep­ar­ated and recycled at source, or is col­lec­ted sep­ar­ately and is not mixed with oth­er types of waste by 2023.
  • In response to the Com­mit­tee on Cli­mate Change’s latest recom­mend­a­tions, it is our inten­tion to extend the forth­com­ing ban on bio­de­grad­able muni­cip­al waste to land­fill to include bio­de­grad­able non-muni­cip­al wastes, sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­sulta­tion and work to provide assur­ance around some spe­cif­ic waste streams.
  • Work with the Con­ven­tion of Scot­tish Loc­al Author­it­ies (COSLA) in the com­ing year to eval­u­ate the House­hold Recyc­ling Charter and review its Code of Prac­tice as a key step in devel­op­ing a future mod­el of recyc­ling collection.
  • Under­pin­ning this, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will take steps to improve waste data, con­tinu­ing to work with UK Gov­ern­ment, oth­er devolved gov­ern­ments and agen­cies to devel­op elec­tron­ic waste track­ing, which will help deliv­er a step change in the qual­ity and use­ful­ness of waste data for decision mak­ing. This will include tak­ing the neces­sary steps along­side Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency to drive imple­ment­a­tion of the sys­tem in Scotland.
  • Elec­tron­ic waste track­ing fund Improved waste data sys­tem will help drive fur­ther pro­gress to deliv­er on exist­ing waste and recyc­ling targets.

The out­come to reduce emis­sions from closed land­fill sites is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policy:

  • Accel­er­ate Land­fill Gas Cap­ture and Land­fill Leg­acy Man­age­ment: Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will work with Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency and key industry part­ners to scale up the exist­ing land­fill gas cap­ture pro­gramme to mit­ig­ate effects of land­fill and envir­on­ment­al impact of closed land­fill sites.
  • Land­fill gas cap­ture on closed sites: in asso­ci­ation with Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency and the waste industry, double the num­ber of land­fill gas cap­ture sites that under­take invest­ig­at­ive or devel­op­ment work (from 12 to 24 sites) by 2025, in order to har­ness energy gen­er­ated from land­fill gas cap­ture and max­im­ise oth­er cir­cu­lar eco­nomy oppor­tun­it­ies. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency has already iden­ti­fied 12 sites for poten­tial invest­ig­at­ive work.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 13 of 73

The out­come to reduce food waste is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policy:

  • Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will lead col­lab­or­at­ive efforts to deliv­er Scotland’s land­mark Food Waste Reduc­tion Action Plan (CNPA1260). To reduce food waste by 33% from the 2013 baseline by 2025. Actions include:
    • Improv­ing mon­it­or­ing and infra­struc­ture by con­sid­er­ing a man­dat­ory nation­al food waste reduc­tion tar­get and man­dat­ory report­ing of Scotland’s food sur­plus and waste by food businesses.
    • Con­sult­ing on the cur­rent rur­al exemp­tion and food sep­ar­a­tion require­ments for food waste col­lec­tions, to help break down bar­ri­ers to food waste reuse and recycling.
    • Sup­port­ing lead­er­ship, innov­a­tion, effect­ive­ness and effi­ciency in Scotland’s pub­lic, private and hos­pit­al­ity sec­tors by expand­ing pilot pro­grammes across the edu­ca­tion sec­tor and pub­lic sec­tor buildings.
    • Sup­port the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of an NHS Scot­land nation­al action plan on food waste.
    • Devel­op best prac­tice guid­ance for pub­lic sec­tor pro­cure­ment teams to drive new ways of work­ing and more trans­par­ent sup­ply chains.
    • A sus­tained approach to pub­lic engage­ment and com­mu­nic­a­tions to enable the pub­lic to make changes in their choices and beha­viours around food and food waste, in part­ner­ship with Zero Waste Scotland.

The out­come to reduce waste and estab­lish a more cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, where goods and mater­i­als are kept in use for longer, is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing proposals:

  • Work­ing with loc­al author­it­ies and the future Depos­it Return Scheme administrator(s) to explore options that will unlock repro­cessing invest­ments, includ­ing pri­cing and incent­ive schemes, to cre­ate jobs and a ready sup­ply of recycled mater­i­al for new packaging.
  • Meas­ures to encour­age more sus­tain­able con­sumer pur­chas­ing, includ­ing plans to take fur­ther steps to con­sult on a charge on single use dis­pos­able bever­age cups and to increase the car­ri­er bag min­im­um charge.
  • Ban­ning pri­or­ity single use items: Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will con­sult on ban­ning a num­ber of prob­lem­at­ic plastic items iden­ti­fied in the European Union’s Single Use Plastics Directive.
  • Imple­ment­a­tion of the Depos­it Return Scheme for single use drinks containers.
  • Work­ing col­lab­or­at­ively across the pub­lic sec­tor devel­op­ing tools and guid­ance and a prac­tic­al approach to influ­ence and empower buy­er, sup­pli­er and key stake­hold­er com­munit­ies to use pub­lic pro­cure­ment to sup­port a green recov­ery and the wider cli­mate and cir­cu­lar eco­nomy ambi­tions through pro­cure­ment, embed­ding climate

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 14 of 73

  • con­sid­er­a­tions in organ­isa­tion­al pro­cure­ment strategies and report­ing pro­gress in annu­al pro­cure­ment reports.
  • Reform­ing exten­ded pro­du­cer respons­ib­il­ity schemes: Con­tin­ue to work with the UK Gov­ern­ment and oth­er devolved admin­is­tra­tions on reforms to the pack­aging exten­ded pro­du­cer respons­ib­il­ity régime, which is expec­ted will deliv­er improved fund­ing for loc­al author­it­ies in the future.
  • Boost­ing the com­mit­ment to build­ing a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, where goods and mater­i­als are kept in use for longer. This will be delivered by embed­ding cir­cu­lar recov­ery prin­ciples in the wider green recov­ery. Through Zero Waste Scot­land and Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency, intensi­fy­ing the work with industry and busi­nesses to address emis­sions asso­ci­ated with pro­duc­tion, con­sump­tion and waste of products / resources; and to pro­mote resource efficiency.
  • In the con­text of the latest Cli­mate Change Com­mit­tee recom­mend­a­tions and build­ing on pro­gress already made by the sec­tor, con­sider meas­ures to ensure new energy from waste plants are more effi­cient, and ​‘future-proofed’ for Car­bon Cap­ture and Stor­age technology.
  • As part of Scot­tish Government’s work on devel­op­ing a route map to 2025, a com­mit­ment to under­take a spe­cif­ic and focused piece of work to exam­ine the range of fisc­al meas­ures used by oth­er coun­tries to incentiv­ise pos­it­ive beha­viours and to devel­op pro­pos­als to go fur­ther in this area.

Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan 2021 – 2022 to 2025 – 2026

The Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan (CNPA107) out­lines the stra­tegic approach to deliv­er­ing Scotland’s Nation­al Infra­struc­ture Mis­sion to increase eco­nom­ic growth by increas­ing annu­al invest­ment in Scotland’s infra­struc­ture. In deliv­er­ing this vis­ion, the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan focuses on three core stra­tegic themes for guid­ing invest­ment decisions in Scot­land namely:

  • Enabling the trans­ition to net zero emis­sions and envir­on­ment­al sustainability.
  • Driv­ing inclus­ive eco­nom­ic growth.
  • Build­ing resi­li­ent and sus­tain­able places.

The first theme: Enabling the trans­ition to net zero emis­sions and envir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity aims to deliv­er plans through the fol­low­ing purposes:

  • Decar­bon­ising heat and improved build­ing efficiency.
  • Decar­bon­ising industry, includ­ing manufacturing.
  • Sup­port­ing a cir­cu­lar economy.
  • Boost­ing resi­li­ence and adaptation.
  • Invest­ing in nat­ur­al capital.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 15 of 73

Mak­ing Things Last: A Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Strategy for Scot­land 2016

The Strategy (CNPA400) sets out Scot­tish Government’s pri­or­it­ies for mov­ing towards a more cir­cu­lar eco­nomy — where products and mater­i­als are kept in high value use for as long as pos­sible. This approach should be reflec­ted in the Pro­posed Plan. It builds on Scotland’s pro­gress in the zero waste and resource effi­ciency agen­das. It aims to benefit:

  • The envir­on­ment – cut­ting waste and car­bon emis­sions and redu­cing reli­ance on scarce resources.
  • The eco­nomy – improv­ing pro­ductiv­ity, open­ing up new mar­kets and improv­ing resilience.
  • Com­munit­ies – more, lower cost options to access the goods they need with oppor­tun­it­ies for social enterprise.

The strategy pri­or­it­ises four key areas for Scot­land, namely:

  • Food and drink and the broad­er bio economy.
  • Reman­u­fac­ture.
  • Con­struc­tion and the built environment.
  • Energy infra­struc­ture.

The last pri­or­ity has no rel­ev­ance to the pre­par­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan due to the absence of wind farms or oil and gas infra­struc­ture (which is the energy infra­struc­ture the strategy is most con­cerned with) in the Nation­al Park.

A sig­ni­fic­ant por­tion of the eco­nomy is centred around tour­ist infra­struc­ture, which is heav­ily weighted toward accom­mod­a­tion and food and drink ser­vices. The strategy sets a tar­get to cut food waste by 2025. Mat­ters relat­ing to tour­ism are covered in the Sched­ule 23: Tourism.

There is also a focus on recyc­ling, with tar­gets to improve recyc­ling rates. Scotland’s long-term tar­gets to recycle 70% of all waste and send no more than 5% of waste to land­fill can in part be achieved by increas­ing the quant­ity and qual­ity of mater­i­als recycled sup­port­ing a cir­cu­lar economy.

The Strategy sets out the inten­tion to review the rur­al exemp­tion for food waste in the Waste (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2012 (CNPA395).

The Strategy reaf­firms the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy oppor­tun­it­ies from the beer and whisky sec­tors, which was high­lighted by Zero Waste Scot­land. With a num­ber of distilleries

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report 2026

Sus­tain­able places | Sched­ule 10: Zero waste

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Page 16 of 73

and micro-brew­ery oper­at­ors in the Nation­al Park, there are poten­tial oppor­tun­it­ies for fur­ther recyc­ling / reuse of mater­i­als with­in these sectors.

Scotland’s Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Waste Route Map to 2030 con­sulta­tion 2024

Scotland’s Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Waste Route Map (CNPA401) is part of the Scot­tish Government’s wider response to wider cli­mate chal­lenges, sit­ting along­side a range of oth­er strategies and plans. It provides an update on Scotland’s Cli­mate Change Vis­ion for 2045 build­ing on the pre­vi­ous 2018 Cli­mate Change Plan.

Deliv­ery of the Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Waste Route Map was a key com­mit­ment set out in the Scot­tish Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment 2023 – 2024 (CNPA1257) and the Bute House Agree­ment (CNPA1258). It is designed to drive pro­gress on three key fronts:

  1. Set­ting the stra­tegic dir­ec­tion and lay­ing found­a­tions for how Scot­land will deliv­er its sys­tem wide, com­pre­hens­ive vis­ion for Scotland’s cir­cu­lar eco­nomy from now to 2030 – based on Respons­ible Pro­duc­tion, Respons­ible Con­sump­tion, and Max­im­ising Value from Waste and Energy.
  2. Set­ting out pri­or­ity actions from now to 2030 to accel­er­ate more sus­tain­able use of Scotland’s resources across the waste hier­archy. The report acknow­ledges the pro­gress made against the exist­ing 2025 waste reduc­tion and recyc­ling tar­gets, the areas where it has fallen short, and the les­sons that can be learnt as the frame­work is set out for what comes next.
  3. Redu­cing emis­sions asso­ci­ated with resources and waste. In 2024, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will set out how it will con­tin­ue to drive down emis­sions in a draft Cli­mate Change Plan. The Route Map sets out the oppor­tun­it­ies Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment will take to decar­bon­ise the waste sector.

As Scot­land has pro­gressed toward a more cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, the fol­low­ing ambi­tions were set out over the last decade:

  • 15% reduc­tion of all waste by 2025, against 2011 levels (on track)
  • 33% reduc­tion of food waste by 2025, based on 2013 baseline (off track)
  • Min­im­um of 60% recyc­ling of household