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Indicators of Sustainable Development for Scotland: Progress Report 2004

Indicator 5. Waste: recycling

Percentage of total household waste recycled

Source: Accounts Commission for Scotland

Source: Accounts Commission for Scotland

The relevance of the indicator

Increasing recycling of materials is part of our strategy to improve resource efficiency - doing more with less.

Choice of Indicator

No common indicator is used internationally to measure recycling of household waste. In some countries the measure relates to municipal waste, in others construction waste is included. In Scotland this indicator is based on estimates of household waste provided by local authorities. In line with European and domestic targets estimates of municipal waste recycling are also recorded for 2001-02 and 2002-03.

Detailed definition and source details

The indicator is defined as the percentage of household waste, collected by or on behalf of councils, that is recycled. It excludes both commercial and industrial waste that is recycled and household waste that is composted by households. Councils obtain waste material for recycling in three ways - through collections at recycling centres (eg bottle banks, paper banks), by separate house-to-house collection of recyclable materials or by separating waste after collection. The Accounts Commission sets out how local authorities should measure indicators in formal instructions each year ¹⁷.

Trends

In 2002-2003, 10.1% of household waste was recycled, which is a slight improvement on the previous year. A further 2.2% of household waste, representing a similar tonnage as the previous year, was used for the recovery of heat, power or other energy sources .

Further disaggregation

Percentage of total household waste recycled in rural and urban councils

Source: Accounts Commission for Scotland

Data are available for individual council areas from 1998-99. In recent years, rural councils have generally recycled more household waste than urban councils and, in 2002-2003, 10.7% of household waste in rural councils was recycled compared with 9.8% of household waste in urban councils. Seventeen councils reported recycling more than 10% of household waste (seven more than the previous year). (See the Annex for allocation of council areas to urban and rural.)

Target

To recycle or compost 25% of municipal waste by 2006.

Action

Ministers have taken powers to set targets in the Local Government in Scotland Act and to require local authorities to prepare Integrated Waste Management Plans to meet the targets. We have established a Strategic Waste Fund to assist local authorities in implementing Area Waste Plans under the National Waste Strategy and have allocated 230m over 3 years (2003-04 to 2005-06). As of February 2004, we have allocated over 115 million to 24 local authorities.

The Scottish Waste Awareness Group, for which we provide support, is implementing the Waste Aware Scotland campaign for use by local authorities as improved recycling facilities are introduced. This ensures that local information on how to recycle is provided at the same time as infrastructure is rolled out. The Scottish Executive's Do a little, change a lot environmental awareness campaign ¹⁸ also raised awareness of waste as an issue.

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