Up to 27 million tonnes of waste from industry could be better utilised through biorefining in Scotland every year, with the potential to add millions of pounds of value to Scotland’s economy, says a new Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) report.
Released yesterday (25 October), ZWS’s new report – ‘Biorefining Potential for Scotland’ – seeks to outline the opportunities available for Scotland to exploit in order to generate the maximum value from its bioeconomy.
Scotland has already shown itself to be committed to moving forward with maximising the value generated from the bioeconomy, with Scottish Enterprise releasing ‘The Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland’ in 2015, and the Scottish Government outlining its priorities for the bioeconomy in its landmark circular economy strategy – ‘Making Things Last’.
The report builds on an earlier study, which found that around £800 million could be added to Scotland’s economy annually if waste and by-products from fish, beer, and whisky businesses were ‘better utilised’, echoing a report released by the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) stating that £2 billion could be added to the whole UK economy through a developed domestic bio-plastics industry.