{"id":589842,"date":"2026-05-18T02:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589842\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T02:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:33:07","slug":"most-scottish-landfills-investigated-over-breaching-pollution-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589842\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Scottish landfills investigated over breaching pollution permits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Internal figures released via FOI \u2013 dating from mid-November \u2013 show that the Scottish Environment<\/a> Protection Agency (Sepa) was reviewing the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permits of 29 of the country\u2019s 39 permitted landfill sites.\n<\/p>\n

\n A PPC permit is the core environmental authorisation that allows higher\u2011risk sites \u2013 including landfills \u2013 to operate, but only under strict conditions designed to limit the pollution of air, land and water.\n<\/p>\n

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\n The data shows that 29 of the landfills \u2013 spanning council\u2011run tips, private waste dumps and even an ash lagoon linked to a major power company \u2013 were investigated for being \u201cnon\u2011compliant\u201d or \u201cmajor non\u2011compliant\u201d. The issues logged by Sepa range from emissions problems and unauthorised activities to basic failures in monitoring, record\u2011keeping, maintenance and day\u2011to\u2011day site management. In some cases, operators have already missed deadlines.\n<\/p>\n

\n It comes as the Scottish Government<\/a> has hailed falling landfill rates as proof Scotland is going \u201czero waste\u201d, even though much of that rubbish is now being burned in new incinerators \u2013 a shift critics say swaps one form of pollution for another.\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile \u2013 as this data shows \u2013 there are serious concerns that many of the remaining dumps could be breaking pollution rules on their way out.\n<\/p>\n

\n An investigation \u2013 of course \u2013 does not automatically mean that rules have been broken, and the Sunday National isn\u2019t aware of any operators that have yet been found liable for offences in connection with these specific permits. Since the data is from mid-November, some of the sites may also no longer be under investigation.\n<\/p>\n

\n But the cluster and scale of sites investigated \u2013 from the Highlands and islands to the central belt \u2013 has raised concerns with campaigners.\n<\/p>\n

\n Climate group Friends of the Earth said it was \u201ctruly alarming\u201d while Scottish Greens<\/a> MSP Mark Ruskell said the figures are \u201cshocking\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

Who is breaching their pollution permits?<\/p>\n

\n ENERGY giant Scottish Power is the operator for the Valleyfield Ash Lagoons on the Fife<\/a> coast \u2013 vast ponds holding waste from the former Longannet coal-fired power station \u2013 which are being investigated by Sepa for being non-compliant for issues including “financial non-compliance, monitoring and recording and reporting”.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n Councils are heavily exposed too: Fife<\/a> has two sites being investigated, while Highland, Argyll and Bute<\/a>, Moray<\/a> and North Lanarkshire<\/a> authorities also all have dumps flagged for issues including emissions breaches, unauthorised activity or basic management failures. Add in landfills run by waste management firm Biffa, recycling firm Levenseat, construction firm Geddes Group and others \u2013 the issue appears to be widespread.\n<\/p>\n

\n Friends of the Earth Scotland\u2019s senior circular economy campaigner Kim Pratt said: \u201cThese sites require careful long-term planning to ensure the risk of pollution and harm is minimised and operators commit to this when they are given permission to run landfill sites.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n She added: \u201cThe Scottish Government<\/a> must immediately increase funding to Sepa so that it is able to hold these companies to account and protect people and nature in Scotland. Any companies found to have broken the terms of their permits must be fined for putting people and nature at risk.”\n<\/p>\n

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\n Mark Ruskell MSP, meanwhile, added: \u201cIf almost three-quarters of Scotland\u2019s permitted landfill sites are failing to meet pollution rules, then it is clear that communities and our natural environment are being badly let down.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cLandfill is not just an eyesore. It can mean pollution, emissions and long-term damage to local areas. The bigger issue though, is that Scotland is still sending far too much waste to landfill in the first place.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cWe need to move much faster towards a circular economy where materials are reused, repaired and recycled rather than buried in the ground.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat is why the Scottish Greens<\/a> want stronger incentives to cut landfill, including increasing the standard and higher rates of Landfill Tax, implementing the recommendations of the climate change review into Scottish Landfill Tax, and ensuring Landfill and Aggregates Taxes work together to reduce construction waste.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf the revenue is there, we would also want to see the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund reopened, so that communities living with the impact of landfill can see direct investment in local environmental projects.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A Biffa spokesperson said: \u201cWe work closely with environmental regulators to continuously improve standards and ensure we meet evolving regulations. As the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (EASR) have been updated in recent years, some older landfill sites \u2013 built and approved under previous frameworks \u2013 can be more complex to bring fully in line with modern requirements.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We are reviewing recent changes to the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations and, where needed, are updating permits and associated documents so that all activities are captured within the latest regulatory framework. This helps ensure we remain compliant and continue to operate responsibly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for The Highland Council<\/a> said: \u201cThe Highland Council<\/a> reports and meets its obligations in respect of its authorisations and the management processes set out by the regulator, Sepa.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAll Scottish waste facilities operate under allocated authorisations which set out conditions for the operation of the sites. These conditions include aspects such as the reporting of data, monitoring information, acceptable waste quantities and operational activities. The conditions for any particular site is dependent on the type of operation.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs a requirement of the authorisation, an operator is required to self-report where an event has occurred that is outside the parameters set out in these conditions (such as the breakdown of equipment).\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese self-reported events are referred to as \u2018non-compliances\u2019. They do not represent pollution occurrences but allow for the regulator and operator to recognise where additional management or resource are required and the extent of what this would be.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cGiven the number of conditions and complexities of landfill operations, it is not uncommon for such events to be required to be reported.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n An Argyll and Bute<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cWe take compliance very seriously. For context, non-compliance can apply for various reasons, including readings from naturally occurring background levels of gases which could be produced by peat or impact of weather etc. There are dozens of conditions and limits that must be compliant, but if one test fails marginally, the whole site is considered non-compliant. When a non-compliance is discovered, management plans are in place to deal with it immediately. We work closely with Sepa throughout the year to ensure our landfill sites and household waste and recycling centres operate to a high standard and in compliance with our permits.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A Moray<\/a> Council spokesperson said: \u201cThe issue referenced was resolved in 2025. The site returned to full compliance shortly afterwards, and there are no current compliance concerns.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n All companies and councils mentioned in this article have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Internal figures released via FOI \u2013 dating from mid-November \u2013 show that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-589842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}