How green is your council? League table of rubbish recycling revealed

However, the latest statistics from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) show local authorities have varied widely in their performance.

Whereas East Renfrewshire and North Ayrshire councils are close to hitting the 60 per cent mark for recycling, other areas languish closer to 20 per cent.

Local authorities that still recycle less than a third of their household waste are Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, the Western Isles, Glasgow and Shetland.

The statistics were published yesterday in a quarterly report by Sepa for the three months from April to June 2011.

During that time, 719,204 tonnes of household waste was created, of which 313,258 tonnes were recycled or composted, representing 43.6 per cent.

Twelve out of 32 local authorities recycled more than half the household waste they collected.

The Scottish Government has a target of recycling 50 per cent of household waste by 2013.

Richard Lochhead, environment secretary, said the statistics were a “credit to Scottish households and local authorities”.

“It’s an excellent achievement to reach nearly 44 per cent nationwide and proof that the zero-waste agenda is gaining real momentum,” he added.

Alison Hay, spokeswoman for regeneration and sustainable development at Cosla, said the figures demonstrated that Scottish councils were committed to achieving a zero-waste vision for Scotland.

However, she added: “With reducing council budgets it will increase the pressure to be able to continue this direction and pace of travel.”

Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at WWF Scotland, said: “Scotland has made good progress on recycling over the past decade and it is encouraging that we are now recycling 44 per cent of our household waste.

“However, despite many local authorities achieving levels of nearly 60 per cent, it is disappointing that a number are recycling less than half of this. As waste disposal costs rise, recycling and composting is not just sensible, it is the most cost effective option for local authorities.”

Sepa has changed the way it calculates the recycling figures, discounting materials that are only suitable for very low-quality reuse such as the compost-like material that is a by-product of treating mixed waste. The aim is to reflect the levels of recycling of items such as paper, plastic, food and other materials that can be turned into new products.

It means some councils have seen considerable drops in their recycling rates compared to this time last year, including Argyll and Bute and Dumfries and Galloway. However, Ms Hay said: “The way Sepa measure recycling has changed, so we should not judge councils for moving up or down the table.”

Jim Hume, Scottish Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said it was good news that some local authorities were recycling more than 50 per cent.

But he added more needed to be done to encourage rates to increase. “Business and households need to have easily accessible and local recycling facilities if the rate of recycling is going to increase,” he said.

“The environment minister needs to work with local councils to boost recycling ventures.”