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Highland Council says fall in recycling 'just a blip'


By Iain Ramage



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HIGHLAND Council chiefs say a rubbish recycling performance last year was just a blip.

While the level of household waste recycled nationally exceeded the amount sent to landfill for the first time, the tonnage slipped in Highland.

The region’s 2016 recycling feat of 44.5 per cent dropped last year to 43.6 per cent.

The council’s vice convener Allan Henderson, who also is also chairman of the environment committee, said: “While we’re getting better at recycling, the change to charging for brown bins has meant some garden waste being channelled into municipal waste.

“I believe our proposal to build a ‘material recovery facility’ and roll out extra brown bin coverage will reverse this slight dip.”

The latest figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) show that recycling rates improved at 19 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

It estimates that 45.6 per cent of waste generated in Scotland was recycled, which was an annual increase of 0.6 per cent.

Environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham welcomed the figures but said more progress was needed, particularly in the cities.

The biggest increases in recycling rates were in West Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Dumfries and Galloway, South Ayrshire and Aberdeen City. Ms Cunningham said: “The Scottish Government has big plans for tackling waste plastics, in particular by introducing a deposit return scheme, to further incentivise people to recycle.

“We’ve also introduced a household recycling charter for local authorities to sign up to, which is making the approach to recycling less confusing for households and creating a more consistent and efficient system for authorities. It’s great to see recycling exceed landfill for the first time, particularly as the stats are released during Recycling Week but I think we still need to see more progress. We may consider further measures if the pace of improvement doesn’t increase.”

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