Scotland will struggle to hit target as recycling rate slows – watchdog

SCOTLAND will struggle to meet its target of recycling 40 per cent of rubbish by the end of 2010, the government's environment watchdog has warned.

Latest figures show Scotland currently recycles 34 per cent of rubbish, almost double the amount five years ago.

However, the speed of the increase in recycling has slowed considerably in recent years.

This has led the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to warn, in its annual report on waste management, that reaching the 40 per cent target will be "challenging".

The report, Waste Data Digest 10, revealed that whereas the recycling rate rose by 13 per cent between 2006 and 2007, it rose by just 4 per cent between 2007 and 2008.

"Although the recycling and composting rate continues to grow, the speed of increase is slowing," the report said. "The target of 30 per cent by the end of 2008 was achieved, but the 40 per cent target for the end of 2010 will be challenging."

The Scottish Government is also aiming to recycle 70 per cent of waste by 2025. Sepa's report showed that recycling rates achieved by individual local authorities from 2008 to 2009 ranged from 18.6 per cent to 44.9 per cent.

The average for rural authorities was 34 per cent, but for urban authorities was just 30 per cent. Second lowest after the Western Isles was Glasgow, at 19.9 per cent. Clackmannanshire had the highest recycling rate, at 44.9 per cent.

Martin Marsden, head of environmental quality at Sepa, said: "The target to recycle 30 per cent of Scotland's waste was met at the end of 2008, although meeting the 40 per cent target will be more challenging. Even greater challenges lie ahead and we must all accept that this will require new and additional services, facilities and, most importantly, changes to our lifestyles so we may further reuse and recycle our waste in Scotland."

Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said tougher measures were needed to bring up rates.

"While we have made good progress in the last few years we are still falling short of best European practice and if we were to take lessons from other European countries to ban mixed waste from landfill or to consider waste charging then we could probably close to double our current recycling rate."

And he added: "If some of the poorest performing councils were to come up to the performance of the best, then that would also take us through the 40 per cent threshold. It's a bit of a scandal that large councils have not put in practice the investments needed."

Paper and glass are the most widely recycled materials, accounting for 50 per cent between them.

However, the rate of recycling is growing fastest for electrical goods and plastics. In 2008 to 2009 nearly 83 per cent of Scottish households were offered a kerbside recycling collection, compared with 59 per cent five years ago. They were least likely to be offered in urban authorities.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Targets, by their nature, are designed to be challenging and the Scottish Government's Zero Waste recycling targets are no exception. However, Scotland is making huge strides forward in changing its recycling habit and dependency on landfill."

She added that it was "very positive" that some local authorities were already breaking the 40 per cent recycling target, but added: "We cannot take our foot off the pedal and must continue to push forwards towards our zero waste goals."

The report also showed that in 2008 to 2009 local authorities had to deal with the lowest amount of waste in the past five years.

Sepa said this suggested the Scottish Government's target of zero growth in municipal waste by the end of 2010, which was set by the then Scottish Executive in 2003, "appears to be achievable".

• A debate on the Scottish Government's plans for the country to become "zero waste" will be held at the Scottish Parliament today.