The “Recycling Improvement Fund Evaluation 2023” evaluated a sample of 10 funding recipients based on project maturity and data availability. These projects represent £15.6m of the total fund.
It found that the funding resulted in an additional 4,668 tonnes of material recycled in 2023, as well as 100 tonnes of reuse.
The improvements also resulted in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 4,580 CO2 emissions – the same as planting 400,000 trees.
The projects also resulted in the creation of around 30 new jobs to support their implementation.
When interviewed, 64% of the sampled funding recipients reported that their projects had successfully achieved their goals; and 100% noted positive outcomes.
East Lothian, Fife, North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City, Na h-eileanan siar, Perth and Kinross, and Clackmannanshire all reported having achieved their goals.
Only Highland, City of Edinburgh, West Lothian and Renfrewshire councils said that their projects had only been “partially successful” thus far.
ZWS additionally interviewed City of Edinburgh even though a lack of evaluated data disqualified it from discussion in the full analysis at this stage.
Recycling Improvement Fund
The £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund was set up by the Scottish government in 2021 as a five-year programme to provide capital for local authorities to improve their recycling and reuse infrastructure and services.
It represented one of the biggest investments into improving recycling in Scotland to date.
So far, the fund has made 48 awards to 27 local authorities, with a total value of more than £66 million.
This means that 84% (27 out of 32) of Scottish authorities have now received funding through the scheme for projects such as improved recycling at parks and improving collections from flats.
Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) released the “Recycling Improvement Fund Evaluation 2023” last month as a way to document the impact of projects which are mature enough to provide data.
ZWS said that it would continue to monitor the success of the project and release its year evaluation results.
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