Farmers will have to pick up the bill for recycling “mountains of plastic” now a Scottish waste-burning ban has come into force, the Tories have said.
On January 1, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) ended an exemption allowing most types of agricultural waste to be burned on farms.
England and Wales saw a ban in 2006, at which time many firms took in polythene and China was a major global importer.
However, a Chinese ban on plastic imports means fewer firms accept recyclates, and farms may be stuck “paying through the nose” for waste management.
North East region MSP Peter Chapman has asked the Scottish government whether it is assisting farms or firms with the extra costs involved.
But the government's environment secretary provided “unsatisfactory” answers to a series of parliamentary questions from the Scottish Conservative MSP.
Mr Chapman said: “As I feared, any farmer who produces plastic waste is going to have to pay through the nose for it.
“There is no cheap way to process polythene now China is out of that market. Firms cannot be expected to run at a loss while there is a bottleneck for their mountains of plastic.
“It appears no financial incentive is coming from the SNP, or for farmers to send plastic to recycle, rather than landfill. Their answers to these questions are unsatisfactory.”
He added: “I fear the ecological and economic consequences as a result.”
The problem was recently highlighted in the BBC TV programme Countryfile, which looked at the impact of the ban in England and Wales, which came into effect in 2006.
However, a recent ban on imports for plastic recycling in China has led to a bottleneck for many exporters, which had a knock-on effect for farmers were unable to have their waste collected.
In England and Wales, a stockpiling of plastic has ensued – while Sepa demands plastic waste is kept on Scottish farms for less than a year.
Mr Chapman asked what the Scottish government is doing to ensure that the waste will be uplifted from farms and that this does not end up in landfill.
Environment minister Roseanna Cunningham said “in most areas of the country there are recycling collection services available, and the network has expanded since the ban was announced.”
Mr Chapman asked what support is being given to recycling companies to process waste items. Other than saying there is now “sufficient service capacity” available, Mrs Cunningham did not outline support.
