The latest recycling results for Scotland put Angus on top for the second year in a row, achieving a 25.2% recycling rate for household waste in 2003/04 (see letsrecycle.com story).
” By April 2008 we are aiming for 25% and a place amongst the leaders, That is our ambition and what we have been working hard to achieve in recent years.
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– Dumfries and Galloway, the worst recycling authority in the UK with 4.3%
The council has already surpassed Scotland's 25% national target for recycling for 2005/06, but is intending to continue to pursue its position as the flagship council for recycling. The council expects the results of a new kerbside recycling scheme to mean even higher rates will be achieved in 2004/05.
Joy Mowatt, Environmental and Leisure services conveyor for Angus, said: “Angus will be in an even better position next year as the figure announced does not include the additional material now being recycled as part of the kerbside recycling scheme.
“We anticipate that the percentage of waste recycled will continue to improve as kerbside recycling is rolled out across Angus during the next 15 months,” she added.
Ms Mowatt said that early indicators, based on a trial carried out in Arbroath, show that kerbside collection dramatically increases the amount of household waste recycled. In Arbroath a recycling rate of 40% was achieved after just six months of the scheme being ran, she noted.
North Lanarkshire
Councils across Scotland are bringing in new recycling services to help improve the national recycling rate of 12.3%, and catch up with the recycling performances of England and Wales. Long-term additional funding from the Scottish Executive in the form of the Strategic Waste Fund is being seen as the driver for many councils to improve their recycling services.
North Lanarkshire, the second-best performing urban authority in Scotland with a recycling rate of 14.7%, has already improved significantly from the 1.3% rate it achieved in 2001. The council is aiming to reach a 25% rate by 2005/06 and is doing so with a 50 million grant from the Strategic Waste Fund.
Councillor Jim Logue, convener of the community services committee, said: “We have taken a bold approach to tackling this problem and it is a strategy that has clearly paid off. We now need to continue to capture people's imaginations, make them want to recycle and make that process as easy and convenient as possible.”
” Angus will be in an even better position next year as the figure announced does not include the additional material now being recycled as part of the kerbside recycling scheme.“
– Joy Mowatt, Environmental and Leisure services conveyor for Angus
To achieve their goals the council is extending its kerbside recycling scheme throughout the authority. By the end of this month almost 120,000 households will have access to its blue wheeled bin for the collection of waste paper and brown bin for the collection of garden waste. The area is also running a pilot glass kerbside collection scheme in the Airdrie area.
Mr Logue also said that the council would be making improvements to its bring sites. “We have ambitious plans to develop our existing civic amenity sites at Wardpark in Cumbernauld, Dalmacoulter in Airdrie and Auchinlea in Cleland. Also sites in Coatbridge, Motherwell and Wishaw will be relocated and developed.
Dumfries and Galloway
At the bottom of the table, Dumfries and Galloway achieved a recycling rate of just 4.3%, but it has its sights set on the top end of the table with a new Private Finance Initiative project involving waste firm Shanks.
The council is investing 30 million in improving waste over the next four years as well as constructing a new 79m mechanical biological treatment plant with Shanks, supported by the Scottish Executive through PFI.
Joan Mitchell, chair of planning and environmental services, said: “By this time next year our recycling figures will have improved from 4% to at least 7% and by April 2008 we are aiming for 25% and a place amongst the leaders. That is our ambition and what we have been working hard to achieve in recent years.”
Work has started on the new 60,000 tonne per annum MBT plant at Locharamoss near Dumfries, and a new composting site at Galdenoch, Stranraer is also set to open soon.
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