How we are performing

Waste Aware Scottish Borders

Targets

There are a number of targets that have been set by the Scottish Government and the European Community which all Councils must work towards. The percentage of waste collected by the Council and sent for recycling and composting is know as the Recycling Rate.

Recycling targets were increased by the Scottish Government in January 2008. Councils must now aim to achieve a recycling rate of 40 per cent by 2010, 60 per cent by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2025. The Council’s waste strategy has been developed within the guidelines of the Lothian & Borders Area Waste Plan. Evaluation (by way of statistical returns) is carried out by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which has responsibility delegated by the Scottish Government.

There are also landfill diversion targets in place for local authorities. Councils will be fined for tonnes above these limits sent to landfill. Find out more about these here. The amount of waste created in Scotland is growing at around 2.5 per cent per annum. The aim is to stop that growth of waste by 2010.

As well as meeting official targets, there are obvious environmental benefits to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, by home composting or reducing, reusing and recycling. See information on the Waste Prevention Guide.

Our recycling rates

The annual recycling rates since 2004 have been:

2007-8 = 33%

2006-7 = 28%

2005-6 =16%

2004-5 = 8%

Our quarterly recycling rates for the past three years were:

Jan to March 2008 = 28%

Oct to Dec 2007 = 31%

July to Sep 2007 = 37%

April to June 2007 = 35%

Jan to March 2007 = 26%

Oct to Dec 2006 = 27%

July to Sep 2006 = 30%

April to June 2006 = 29%

Jan to March 2006 = 21%

Oct to Dec 2005 = 19%

July to Sep 2005 = 15%

April to June 2005 = 10%

All statistics are subject to verification by SEPA.

Kerbside Recycling audits

Audits are regularly carried out on the materials collected at the kerbside and sent for recycling. Materials that cannot be recycled, items that are not wanted and should not be placed in the recycling bags end up at landfill. This figure is the “contamination rate”.

The breakdown of materials actually recycled by weight:

Material	June 2006	October 2006	June 2007	October 2007
Paper	62.35%	60.49%	60.65%	64.31%
Cardboard	26.45%	28.17%	22.58%	20.92%
Plastic Bottles	5.08%	4.86%	9.03%	6.62%
Cans	2.24%	2.18%	3.00%	4.77%
Polythene	1.06%	1.08%	1.51%	1.54%
Contamination Rate	2.82%	3.22%	3.23%	1.84%

Figures supplied by J&B Recycling.

Household survey

More than 90 per cent of residents in the Borders now recycle regularly. The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) survey in the autumn of 2006 found that over 90 per cent of residents now recycle regularly. This is up from 56 per cent in 2002.

Contact us

Telephone Helpline: 01835 825128

Email: The Recycling Team

By post: The Recycling Team, Scottish Borders Council, Newtown St Boswells, Melrose, TD6 0SA

Thank you for helping us get it sorted.