The data suggested that the structures, institutions and practices of waste governance in Scotland were seen as being insufficient to manage and account for waste as a resource. The interviewees suggested that this was – in part – a consequence of the limited consideration of the source and type of waste within past policies. Leading from this there was a clear emphasis that a goal of the ZW policy should be to expand the scope of waste governance in Scotland to engage with a wider range of stakeholders looking at all waste streams at every stage of the production-consumption cycle. Conversely, the scope of ZW was the area in which interviewees voiced most limitations of the current
policy; with some suggesting that there was not a wide appreciation of the concept and in many instances there was no depth of understanding of the idea.
There were two discussion points identified which clearly considered the depth of ZW policy integration; one related particularly to waste streams and the other to consideration of appropriate intervention points in the production process. Within the documents, the importance of ZW policy applying to both municipal and commercial waste was widely noted. The ZW Plan explicitly states that: “this new approach will apply to all resource streams, not just municipal waste” (Scottish Government, 2010a: 9). This is a marked change from the first announcement of the ZW initiative where the focus was predominantly on municipal waste targets (Scottish Government, 2008a). The inclusion of all wastes seems to have occurred as part of the ZW Think Tank discussions prior to the release of the ZW Plan, partly in recognition that municipal waste constituted only 20% of Scotland’s Waste arisings (i.e. ZW Think Tank, 2010a). The interviews also pointed to the necessity of inclusion of all waste sources in the ZW Plan. They highlighted the over-emphasis on municipal waste and suggested was a legacy of past waste policies.
These arguments are mirrored in the academic literature where empirical studies show that there is a focus on municipal waste in ZW policies and academic work. Zaman (2015:15) found that municipal waste studies accounted for 47% of academic work. Similarly Gregson and Crang (2010) highlight the potential overemphasis on municipal waste in academic studies. Conversely elsewhere literature notes that ZW policies must consider the “whole system” (Curran and Williams, 2012: 3). This (alongside common sense) suggests that all sources of waste should be included in a ZW scenario. However, in contrast to the interview data in this project, there has been little discussion of the disconnect between the focus on municipal waste and sustainable waste management goals in academic literature. This supports Davoudi’s (2006) claim that waste policy has developed more quickly than academic research.
In contrast, sustainable waste management literature has focused heavily on the importance of the consideration of a closed-loop system of production where waste, efficiency and resource use is considered at all stages of manufacturing and
was also deemed to be of importance in the ZW policy. However, whilst most interviews touched upon the importance of a full system approach, it was found that that the focus of discussion was still predominantly on end-of-pipe solutions.
Zaman’s (2015) review also found that despite a promotion of the closed-loop idea, there was a predominance on end-of-pipe studies and policy applications, leading him to suggest that at the moment ZW means ZW to landfill. This was not the case in Scotland; however, it would not be inaccurate to suggest that there appears to be less focus on design, manufacture and consumption issues and more on collection, recycling and disposal.
This could be explained by the historical association with these processes and waste. Hetherington’s (2004) research on the concept of disposal finds that the idea is often reduced to waste and conceptualisation tends to focus on disposal as part of a linear system. There was some suggestion from the ZW policy arena that the converse is also true. At the Scottish Waste Conference (2012), the plenary session questioned whether the ‘waste’ in ZW undermined the policy goals to move beyond end-of-pipe waste. In this sense it would appear that ‘waste’ in Scotland has become synonymous with discard. An effort has been made to overcome these limitations by expanding ZW ideas beyond the waste industry. The data also suggested a strong support of the idea that the ZW policy should be broadly adopted across government and society both in terms of engagement with stakeholders and cross-policy domains.
Business, community groups, individuals, local authorities, charities, government agencies and the Scottish Government all were identified within the research data as being central to ZW policy. The ZW Plan definitively states that “a ZW Scotland will need commitment and resolve from every one of us.” (Scottish Government, 2010a: v). Previous plans also made reference to the importance of involving all stakeholders (Scottish Government, 2003), but there is evidence of a definite progression towards a more open and less expert style of communication could be seen in comparison of this earlier waste strategy and ZW Plan (Scottish Government, 2010a). The latter was not only shorter and uses less technical language but also has less emphasis on measuring and monitoring waste. Development of the ZW Plan is discussed in more detail on p 150 of this chapter.
Despite apparent attempts to make the policy more accessible, a number of interviewees believed that the idea of ZW was not well known outside of the waste industry. Interviewees thought that where the policy was recognised and understood within business the most active actors were large businesses, with smaller businesses too focused on economic constraints to worry about waste policy. Similarly it was suggested that levels of understanding also varied across local authorities, with some interviewees claiming that certain councils really got ZW whilst others still continued to see waste as a burden to be dealt with. Tellingly those local authorities deemed to understand the concept (Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Fife) correlated with the areas with the highest recycling rates, which speaks to findings on p137 of this chapter.
Empirical studies would seem to support that sometimes the idea of ZW is lost in the application with policy in practice not reflecting the environmental goals of ZW (Phillips et al. 2011; Murphy and Pincetti, 2013). However, academic interpretations of sustainable waste management also present the notion that strategies must be widely adopted across society to ensure success (Bull et al. 2010: Watson et al. 2008).
Academic literature has also suggested that sustainable waste management requires cross-policy integration (Costa et al. 2010; Lehmann 2011; Clay et al. 2007). This project identified linkages to economic, planning, environmental, and health and safety policies. One of the more recent publications clearly states that the ZW Plan “is an economic and a resource strategy – not simply a waste strategy” (Scottish Government, 2013a p8). However, some questions were raised within the interview data about how successful this integration was in operation.
Links with the planning system raised particular concern. Despite the then relevant Scottish Planning Policy (Scottish Government, 2010b:8)8 aiming to “support the achievement of ZW objectives, including the provision of the required waste management installations”, lack of knowledge amongst planning officials and poorly constructed local plans in relation to waste and resource management were considered by interviewees to be a barrier to implementation of the ZW policy. Additionally some
interviewees raised questions about the cross-departmental knowledge of waste in their own professions and organisations, even where these were environmentally focused. It was felt that waste remained in silos and a niche concern for many environmental governance actors in Scotland.
There has been little academic research which explicitly considers this concern. No studies have reviewed other policies compatibility with ZW nor have there been many qualitative investigations as to the understanding of waste issues within environmental governance. Studies have reviewed the context of sustainable development policies (including in Scotland (see Russell and Thomson, 2009)) and identified waste as a factor, but the researcher could not find any literature which used ZW as a lens through which to evaluate other policies. It is suggested this could be an avenue for further research.