Scotland lags behind England and Wales on domestic recycling

Data published in a report from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on local authority waste arisings show that of the 2.6 million tonnes of household waste produced in 2003/04, just over 345,000 tonnes was recycled or composted. On municipal waste, including trade waste, Scotland has achieved a 12.1% recycling rate.

”Continued local authority commitment will help us to achieve our overall target for Scotland.“
– Lewis Macdonald, deputy minister for environment
This compares to the expected 17% rate for household waste recycling in England during 2003/04, and 16.25% rate announced for Welsh councils last month.

While Scotland's recycling rate has increased significantly from the 8% figure achieved in 2002/03, the country's 2.3 million households must double the 12.8% rate to achieve national targets for 2005/06.

• See recycling rates table (below) for full Scottish council recycling results.

Commenting on the figures, Scotland's deputy minister for environment and rural development, Lewis Macdonald, said: “These figure show an increase from 7.97% in 2002/03 to 12.1% in 2003/04. The Executive has invested heavily in recycling through the Strategic Waste Fund (SWF). All 32 local authorities have now been awarded funding totalling 321 million to 2007/08 and a total of 986 million to 2020.

Encouraged
“We are encouraged by the increase in the amount of waste being recycled and continued local authority commitment will help us to achieve our overall target for Scotland to recycle or compost 25% of municipal waste by 2006,” Mr Macdonald said.

The best council for recycling in Scotland is once again Angus, recycling 25.2% of its household waste, up from 24.3% in 2002/03. Four other Scottish councils have achieved recycling rates above 20% – North Ayrshire (23.5%), East Renfrewshire (23.2%), Dundee (22.5%) and Perth & Kinross (20.9%).

” Recycling rates in Scotland are improving as a consequence of a significant investment programme by the Scottish Executive.“
– John Ferguson, SEPA
Investment
Slow progress is being made, with 20 of the 32 Scottish councils recycling less than 14% of their household waste. But, councils like Dumfries & Galloway – propping up the table with a 4.3% recycling rate in 2003/04 – have yet to benefit from large-scale investment through private sector and Scottish Executive involvement in their waste services.

Commenting on the performances, SEPA's waste and resources manager, John Ferguson, said: “Scotland did not benefit from the Additional Capital Allowance Scheme awarded to England and Wales in the early 1990's. As a result, Scotland's baseline performance has been a few percentage points behind since that time.

“Recycling rates in Scotland are improving as a consequence of a significant investment programme by the Scottish Executive and this is ongoing. Scotland's recycling figures for the first half of 2004 represent a recycling rate of around 17%,” Mr Ferguson added.

Urban
Among Scotland's major urban areas, Dundee is showing what can be done with its 22.5% rate, but has been unable to make a significant increase on the 21.9% rate achieved in 2002/03.

Edinburgh has improved its recycling rate from 7.7% in 2002/03 to 12.1% in 2003/04. Aberdeen has improved by two percentage points to 9.6%, but Glasgow city council has slipped from 6.2% to 6%, and is now the 28th worst council in Scotland for recycling.

Mr Ferguson said: “A significant element of Scotland's recycling programme will be influenced by the performance of composting, and investment of new composting infrastructure is underway.”

Scotland is to consult on a waste prevention plan in 2005, Mr Ferguson added.

Results
The full table of Scottish recycling rates, calculated by letsrecycle.com from tonnage data released by SEPA, is as follows:

Source: letsrecycle.com analysis of SEPA data