Clackmannanshire tops Scottish council recycling league

Unaudited figures published by SEPA today have revealed that Clackmannanshire has increased its recycling rate from just 9.3% in 2003/04 to 38.1% in the latest results, which also showed Scotland's national household waste recycling rate has hit 17.3% (see letsrecycle.com story).

The previous year, Clackmannanshire was only 22nd in the league of best councils for recycling. Commenting on the recycling result, Clackmannanshire spokeswoman Karen Payton said: “The unprecedented 38.1% rate is a result of the implementation of the Clackmannanshire Waste Plan.

“The majority of households have three ways to manage their waste – a brown bin for compost, a blue box for recyclables and a green bin. We have also re-designed our amenity site and the special uplift service allows for recycling,” she explained.

Increases


A number of other councils in Scotland have also achieved good increases in their recycling rates during 2004/05, including South Ayrshire (up from 6.9% in 2003/04 to 21.4% in 2004/05) and Stirling (up from 16.8% in 2003/04 to 27.5% in 2004/05).

Other councils have mostly achieved steady increases in their recycling rates, including Dundee, which has continued its good performances with a recycling rate of 26.5% in 2004/05, up from 22.5% in 2003/04.

Waste Fund


Like other Scottish councils, Dundee council has benefited from the Scottish Executuve's Strategic Waste Fund – in Dundee's case receiving 26 million to expand recycling over the next two decades. Already the council has expanded its Riverside civic amenity site, ran a trial in eight city areas for a new kerbside collection system and brought in two new vehicles for the collection of domestic commercial paper.

Councillor Julie Sturrock, convener of the council's environmental services and sustainability committee, said: “We have plans following the Scottish Executive funding to see a significant increase in household compost collection and a new way of collecting, plastics, glass and aluminium from the kerbside.”

Improvement


At the other end of the table Midlothian council slipped to the bottom of the recycling league with a recycling rate that fell from 5% in 2003/04 to 4.7%.

” From a standing start it is anticipated that a recycling percentage of over 20% will be achieved this year “
– Cllr Derek Milligan, Midlothian council
However, the council has plans in place to turn its rate around, and believes that come 2005/06 it will be moving towards the top of the table.

Cllr Derek Milligan, Cabinet Member for Commercial services at the council, said: “Midlothian is in the initial stages of rolling out its recycling programme. 90% of households in Midlothian are having green waste collected at the kerbside and other materials like glass, plastic, paper and card are being collected in the town of Penicuik with other areas to be added over the next 9 months.

“From a standing start it is anticipated that a recycling percentage of over 20% will be achieved this year,” Cllr Milligan added.

Full (unaudited) recycling results for Scottish councils in 2004/05 were as follows:

Source: letsrecycle.com analysis of SEPA data