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SEPA, as Scotland’s independent environmental regulator, has set out its enforcement approach via a Regulatory Position Statement published on 29 October 2025. It is for SEPA to determine and apply regulatory decisions within its statutory remit, and it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on those operational matters.

Incineration permit conditions required by the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 prevent the incineration of separately collected recyclable waste.

The Scottish Government is supporting diversion of recyclable material from residual waste. We are making one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland through the Recycling Improvement Fund. A total of £66.6 million has now been allocated to 27 local authorities for 48 projects to increase the quantity and quality of recycling across Scotland. We are funding a range of improvements, including more frequent recycling collections, the extension of food and garden waste collections, and boosting Scotland’s capacity to recycle problematic materials like plastic films. The household waste recycling rate increased from 43.5% in 2023 to 44.3% in 2024.

Local authorities in Scotland will also see around £150 million per year in funding to support collection of household packaging waste through extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. These payments will start from November 2025.

Our plans to co-design a new household recycling Code of Practice are set out in the Circular Economy & Waste Route Map. The new, statutory Code of Practice will increase consistency, making the right choices the easier choices for households to maximise diversion of recyclable waste from disposal. This is alongside giving local authorities more powers to tackle persistent, deliberate contamination of recycling and waste bines, mirroring powers that are already available to local authorities in England and Wales, to ensure that recyclable material is correctly disposed of.

The Scottish Government continues to consider relevant evidence and analysis as part of our ongoing policy development for a cruise ship levy. This formal analysis will publish early next year.

Port and cruise stakeholders have been working on their own alternative proposals to a levy. We anticipate these will be shared with the Scottish Government in the next few weeks. The Scottish Government will consider these stakeholder proposals alongside the alongside the consultation analysis when deciding next steps.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with waste sector representative bodies, including those representing commercial operators/Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities such as the Scottish Environmental Services Association (SESA), through channels such as the Waste and Resources Sector Forum.

This includes recent engagement with both public (local authority) and commercial sector representatives in relation to policies including the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste (BMW), the proposed expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to include incineration and waste treatment capacity, among others.

The 2022 independent review on the role of incineration in Scotland’s waste hierarchy states that in the short-term, incineration will have a role to play in managing our waste as we transition to a circular economy.

As we continue to increase our reuse and recycling rates, we will produce even less waste, however we will still need an appropriate way to manage our unavoidable and unrecyclable waste.

That’s why the Scottish Government’s Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) makes clear that development proposals for energy-from-waste facilities will not be supported, except under limited circumstances.

We have also been working with local authorities, through Zero Waste Scotland, to reduce the length of energy from waste contracts, and remove the requirement for guaranteed tonnages – giving local authorities the flexibility to respond to changes that will support Scotland’s move to a circular economy.

The Scottish Government recognises the value of a long term, evidenced-based indicative residual waste treatment cap to help inform planning and investment decisions as Scotland transitions towards a circular economy, as part of an overall strategic approach (Recommendation 5 of the Independent Review on the Role of Incineration in Scotland’s Waste Hierarchy (the Review) published May 2022).

That is why, as set out in Scotland’s Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030, we have committed to develop an indicative cap through Scotland’s Residual Waste Plan (RWP), due for publication in 2027.

In line with the Review’s recommendation, any cap will be indicative and consider all residual waste capacity, including landfill and other treatment options. It should account for waste streams that must be incinerated by law, such as those containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and allow for sufficient contingency to account for uncertainties in the data, the trajectory of residual waste arisings, and policy development and delivery.

We held a public consultation to formally hear views on the introduction of a potential cruise ship levy and point of entry levy, and to consider further the impacts on business, local government, and others. The analysis of the responses will be published shortly and the Scottish Government will consider next steps in due course.

The Scottish Government has carried out long-term emissions projections for electricity generation, which include energy-from-waste emissions, which will be published as part of the Climate Change Plan Analytical Annex in due course. There are currently no long-term projections for emissions from energy-from-waste on a per site basis.

There have been several independent evidence reviews on potential health impacts from municipal waste incineration:

• Health Protection Scotland (2009) review on incineration and reported human health effects concluding that “providing that any existing or new incinerators operate in accordance with current regulations governing emissions, the scope for any adverse human health impacts associated with their emissions should remain minimal”.
• Public Health Scotland (2022) rapid evidence review focused on municipal solid waste incineration, commissioned to support the Government’s Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy. The findings of this rapid review reinforced the conclusions drawn in the 2009 HPS report above, concluding that it is “still reasonable to conclude that any risk to human health associated with emissions from newer incinerators, operated within the current regulations, is very likely to be less than was the case previously…”.
• UK-level synthesis by UKHSA (2025), concluding that “modern, well-run and well-regulated municipal waste incinerators are not a significant risk to public health, as contributions to local pollutant concentrations are small”.

As part of the permitting regime, SEPA requires a Human Health Impact Assessment with every PPC incineration permit application, and it publishes application documents for public and statutory consultation. SEPA also consults the relevant NHS Health Board to ensure potential public health impacts are considered.

SEPA sets and enforces stringent permit conditions, including continuous emissions monitoring, periodic stack testing, and ambient air quality assessments. SEPA tightened emissions limits for Scottish plants in line with the 2019 Waste Incineration BAT Conclusions, with compliance required by 3 December 2023.

Energy from waste emissions were expected to rise in the short-term as a result of preparations for the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste in Scotland which comes into force on 31 December 2025. As part of these preparations, a portion of currently landfilled waste is diverted to incineration, resulting in an increase in incineration emissions.

However, this is expected to be accompanied by a larger longer-term decrease in emissions from the waste sector as a whole due to lower landfill emissions, driven by the ban.

The independent review on the role of incineration in Scotland’s waste hierarchy (published 2022) found that incineration's current place within the waste hierarchy is correct, meaning that overall, it is preferable to other forms of residual waste treatment, such as landfill but made clear recommendations around limiting future capacity and decarbonisation of energy from waste.