Listen
Scotland exceeds recycling target
07/09/2007
Scotland has exceeded its target of recycling 25 per cent of household waste by the end of 2006, according to figures published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) today.
Across Scotland, 27.1 per cent of waste is now recycled, less waste is sent to landfill sites, and the amount of waste produced generally has fallen.
Aiming to improve on these figures, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead announced plans to host a "waste summit".
The event will take place on October 3 with representative from each of Scotland's local authorities expected to attend.
Mr Lochhead said:
"It is very encouraging that the 2006 target for recycling has been comfortably met.
"I am pleased that the amount of waste going to landfill has fallen and that the amount of municipal waste has also been reduced.
"But we want to push onwards and upwards. We aspire to a zero waste Scotland and are currently looking at ways in which we can make our recycling targets even more ambitious.
"We want to ensure all relevant parties - including local authorities - have a chance to contribute to how we further improve on recycling.
"There will be a "waste summit" on October 3 in Edinburgh where we will discuss the future policy for Scotland.
"I would of course like to thank the Scottish people for continuing to acknowledge the importance of recycling their waste and making this nation more environmentally sustainable."
Key points of interest in today's figures are:
- 2006 recycling rate was 27.1 per cent, up from 23.3 per cent in 2005
- A quarter on quarter dip in recycling rates from Q2 to Q3 2006-07. This may be due to seasonal fluctuation in rates which sees more waste composted in summer months
- 2006 target of no more than 1.5m tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste has been met - precise figure is 1,476,900, down from 1,578,232 in 2005
- Total municipal waste arisings have fallen from 3,438,311 in 2005 to 3,385,365 in 2006
- As they stand the next recycling targets are 30 per cent by 2008 and 55 per cent by 2020