To help the 14 under-achieving local authorities we have announced an extra £7 million for local government funding
Richard Lochhead, Scottish environment secretary
The money, which is being put into the Zero Waste Fund, will help address the fact that the country only achieved a 35.9% recycling rate for the rolling year October 2008 to September 2009 – over four percentage points short of its goal.
The figures, which were collated by the government waste database WasteDataFlow and published by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), are from data from the second quarter of 2009/10 (July 2009 to September 2009) during which councils achieved a 39% recycling rate, but have been analysed in the context of the whole year to counteract seasonal fluctuations.
The data showed that for the rolling year October 2008-September 2009, only 18 of Scotland's 32 councils had reached the target already – leaving 14 (43%) lagging behind.
And, while the country still has over a year in which to meet its 40% target, its performance over the previous year only rose by 3% (see letsrecycle.com story) – meaning that a slightly higher rate of improvement would be needed to ensure the goal is met.
As a result, environment secretary Richard Lochhead announced more help for councils. He said: “Eighteen of our 32 authorities have now met the target. These targets, therefore, are attainable. To help the 14 under-achieving local authorities we have announced an extra £7 million for local government funding. We are also planning a national campaign to get everyone in the recycling habit.”
The £7 million funding, which is set to be shared among all 32 councils, comes as part of a wide-ranging package of financial support given to Scottish councils for the 2010/11 budget.
Target
The Scottish figures are below that of Wales, which has a 40% recycling rate target set for 2009/10 but has reported better progress.
In its second quarter figures for 2009/10 published in January, Wales announced it had topped 40% recycling in the second successive quarter and claimed it was “in-line” to achieve its 40% target for the year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Figures
Assessing the latest Scottish figures, the second quarter data for 2009/10 show a 2.7% increase on the recycling rate compared to the same period in 2008/09 – rising from 36.3% to 39% over the 12 months.
This equates to an overall recycling rate of 35.9% when taken as the rolling year October 2008 to September 2009, which is done to eliminate seasonal factors.
Scottish councils produced 3,252,219 tonnes of municipal waste during the rolling year, of which 1,167,372 tonnes was either recycled or composted. Of the remainder, 1,995,558 tonnes was landfilled and 89,289 tonnes was incinerated.
During the rolling year, the amount of biodegradable waste landfilled was 1,202,201 tonnes, which indicates that Scotland is within its 2010 Landfill Allowance of 1.32 million tonnes.
Kenny Boag, national waste policy unit manager at SEPA, said: “It is very encouraging to see Scotland's municipal waste recycling rate continue to rise and the signs are good in that it looks as though we will meet our immediate targets.”
On a council level, Clackmannanshire council achieved the highest recycling rate across the rolling year with 45.2%, while Fife council (44.4%) and Moray council (44.1%) also achieved high rates. Glasgow city council and Eilean Siar council achieved the lowest recycling rates, with 20.3% and 21.9%, respectively.
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