Today's figures reaffirm the sense that we are seeing an increasing appetite for recycling from the Scottish public.
Richard Lochhead
The 12 months up to September 2007 saw Scottish local authorities averaging a 30.5% municipal waste recycling rate.
Clackmannanshire continued its rich vein of form, topping the table with a 42.8% recycling rate for the year.
Scottish cabinet secretary for the environment, Richard Lochhead said the figures showed that Scotland was making “good progress” in improving its waste management, with more than one million tonnes of waste now being diverted from landfill.
Of Scotland's 3.4 million tonnes of municipal waste, 2.3 million was sent to landfill, with 70,092 tonnes incinerated.
Mr Lochhead said the achievement supported his administration's new long-term aim of reaching a 70% recycling rate by 2025. The next target for municipal waste recycling is a 40% goal by 2010, while landfill rates must fall from the current 67% to 56% by 2010.
Mr Lochhead said: “In last month's Waste Statement to Parliament, I set out a number of ambitious targets for the future of recycling and landfill in Scotland. Individuals have a responsibility to recycle waste where they can and a commitment to recycle more is one of the pledges in our Greener Scotland campaign.
“Today's figures reaffirm the sense that we are seeing an increasing appetite for recycling from the Scottish public and I congratulate householders across Scotland on their achievements so far,” he added.
Mr Lochhead said his government's £7.5 million fund for community recycling projects would make it “even easier for people to recycle and to help us achieve our ambitious targets.”
SEPA
Top councils for recycling
1. Clackmannanshire – 42.8%
2. Moray – 41.6%
3. South Ayrshire – 41.1%
4. East Ayrshire – 39.4%
5. Stirling – 37.8%
6. South Lanarkshire – 37.0%
7. West Lothian – 36.4%
8. Perth & Kinross – 36.3%
9. Fife – 36.2%
10. Falkirk – 35.6%
SEPA – the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – said the latest available figures, for the second quarter of the financial year 2007/08, showed that from July to September 2007, local authorities were achieving a 33.5% recycling rate.
This three-month period may have included a seasonal variation, however, but SEPA sees the rolling 12-month achievement of 30.5% as more reliable.
John Ferguson, manager of the waste and resource strategy unit at SEPA said: “The latest figures released today are good news. The efforts from the public have continued to improve and this has been shown in the figures released today.
“As positive as these results are, we all need to continue our efforts to minimise waste growth and maximise recycling if we are to continue to meet the ambitious recycling/composting targets set out by the minister in a recent announcement on the future of waste policy for Scotland,” Mr Ferguson said.
Councils
Along with Clackmannanshire, Scotland's top 10 local authorities for recycling municipal waste included Moray, South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth & Kinross, Fife and Falkirk.
The lowest recycling rates in Scotland were in the Shetland Isles (17.3%) and Glasgow (17.6%). All other Scottish authorities achieved recycling rates above 20%.
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