Scotland makes significant improvement in recycling

The reports, published by Waste Aware Scotland and Remade Scotland, looked at the waste stream for the year 2006/07 and praised the use of kerbside collections and the intervention of recycling advisors in helping the country achieve a 30% recycling rate for the year.

Richard Lochhead, cabinet secretary for the environment, said: “In recent years, Scotland has been making steady progress in increasing recycling rates. However, the Scottish Government is committed to achieving a recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2025.

“Both of the reports being published today will assist in spreading best practice around the public sector as we take the essential journey towards zero waste,” he added.

Remade

Remade Scotland – a project which advises councils how to minimise, reduce and recycle waste – found that kerbside collections accounted for 58% of the 750,000 tonnes of recyclable material extracted from the household waste stream in Scotland, with the remainder being drawn from recycling centres and collection points.

In the report delivered by the Caledonian Environment Centre, which is part of the Glasgow Caledonian University, the main factors behind improved recycling were said to be collection frequency, collection capacity, range of materials collected and the frequency of residual waste collection.

Research found that collections performed once a week yielded 46% more recyclable material than fortnightly collections, multi-material schemes collecting four or more materials produced 86% more recyclates than a single stream collection and the use of fortnightly residual waste collections produced 83% more dry recyclates than areas with weekly residual waste collection.

Professor Jim Baird, director of the Caledonian Environment Centre, said: “There is clear evidence that Scottish local authorities are increasing the amount of recyclates collected through kerbside and recycling centre and point facilities.

“This indicates that the efforts made by local authorities, assisted by the substantial financial investments made by successive administrations in the Scottish Government, are now reaping tangible rewards,” added Professor Baird.

Recommendations within the report suggested that Scotland should collect blue bins fortnightly, boxes and bags weekly, introduce a collection capacity of 70 litres of higher, increase the range of materials collected, collect residual waste fortnightly and expand or tailor schemes to include hard-to-reach or low participatory areas.

Waste Aware

In its first annual Recycling Advisor Support Programme Report, the Government-funded Waste Aware Scotland concluded that the use of recycling advisors, especially in areas of low participation, could be directly linked to the boost in recycling figures.

Waste Aware initially developed a monitoring and intervention strategy in 2003 following the publication of the Forth Valley Area Waste Plan, which had failed to curb low levels of participation and high levels of contamination within Falkirk, Stirlingshire and Clackmannanshire. The introduction of advisors to educate and raise awareness was seen as an important means of improving kerbside recycling participation.

The research, carried out in six week monitoring cycles across 10 councils, found that there was a direct correlation between the intervention of recycling advisors and the set out rates in certain areas, which lead to less residual waste being set out as well as occupants began to use their recycling containers more.

Also in the work performed by the Waste Aware Group, recycling advisors found that direct contact with residents had a far more positive effect than surveys and recommended this tactic to continue the improvements to Scotland's recycling rate, along with agreeing with Remade Scotland's suggestion of fortnightly residual waste collection.

Dr Nicki Souter, Waste Aware Scotland campaign manager, said: “We are delighted to be able to support local authorities in optimising kerbside recycling services through our recycling advisor training and support programme.

“It's great to see the positive impact that recycling advisors are having on helping the public to increase the amount of waste that they recycle at home,” she added.