Councils in Scotland are showing steady signs of improving their recycling rates although the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) recently warned that many are likely to fail in meeting government recycling targets.
Since 2006, local authorities have increased their recycling and composting rates by four per cent. Last year they recycled or composted 31.2 per cent of their waste, which means they are already meeting the target of 30 per cent set for the end of this year.
In January, however Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead, set a target of becoming a zero-waste society and Sepa thinks this target may be out of reach.
Sepa’s head of waste, Kenny Boag, said: “Scotland has made efforts to meet the recycling and compost targets over the past few years, but we can’t slow down yet. The targets for the future are very challenging and if we are to meet them, we will need to increase our efforts. We all need to do more to minimise waste growth in our local areas and then continue to maximise recycling to keep up the result we have seen to date.”
By 2010, councils have a target of recycling and composting 40 per cent of waste which will increase to a target of 60 per cent by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2025.
Mr. Lochhead said this week that recycling figures indicate that Scotland is making positive progress towards recycling goals. “However, with ambitious targets on recycling and landfill reduction now in place to achieve a zero-waste Scotland, I want to see more being done, particularly in those areas where performance is below par,” he said.
“We need to make it as easy as possible for ordinary people to recycle and local authorities have a major role to play.”
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