"Clackmannanshire heads the recycling league table with a respectable 37.9% followed, some distance back, by Angus on 29%"
SEPA has published its sixth annual Waste Data Digest for the 2004. Though this information is historic, SEPA makes a well presented report on overall waste management in Scotland for 2004 and is to be commended on the comprehensive nature of the report.
The work is essentially based on surveys undertaken of Scottish authorities and is replaced by the Waste Data Flow system in which Scottish authorities are participating.
Full coverage of statistics relating to municipal. commercial and industrial wastes, including hazardous waste, and reference to such categories as packaging waste are provided in the report.
The report gives detailed analyses of such items as the waste types that have been recycled by the different authorities enabling ready comparison to be made by the reader.
There is a good section on composting undertaken by local authorities which gives a reasonable amount of detail on how the individual authorities approach this issue.
A full section of the report is allocated to waste disposal again with adequate and comprehensive tables provided together with appropriate pictorial presentations.
One can only hope that SEPA does not reduce its standard of waste statistical coverage when it provides future reports based on the WasteDataFlow system.
Waste Arisings
Approximately 19 million tonnes of controlled waste arose in Scotland during 2004-05.
This was split:
Household 15%
Industrial and Commercial 47%
Construction and Demolition 38%
During 2004/05 around 3.51m tonnes of controlled waste was collected by or on behalf of Scottish Authorities. Of this total 0.65m tonnes (18.45%) was recycled.
2.8m tonnes was household waste of which 0.52m tonnes (18.7%) was recycled or composted.
Statistics for individual authorities are provided with Glasgow City collecting the most controlled waste, though at an arising rate of 1 tonne per household, the City is below the average waste arising per household of 1.17 tonnes for Scotland.
Analysis of household waste is also presented though, as this comes from relatively few (3) authorities, there are significant variations between these statistics. Organic kitchen waste is consistently high ranging from 15 % to 28% of analyses giving a good indicator of why Authorities (in England in particular) are moving towards separate collection of these wastes for treatment by anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting.
Local authority league table for recycling and composting 2004-05
The table shows the percentage of total municipal waste arising that was recycled and composted. The arising figures exclude end-of life vehicles, road maintenance waste and separately collected construction and demolition waste and industrial waste.
Clackmannanshire heads the league table with a respectable 37.9% followed, some distance back, by Angus on 29%.
Holding up the rest of the table is Aberdeen with a sorry 3.5%, with Midlothian not too far above on 4.7%.
The average recycling and composting figure for Scotland as a whole was 17.5%.
Clackmannanshire 37.9
Angus 29
Stirling 28.9
East Renfrewshire 28.4
South Lanarkshire 28.4
Moray 27.3
Dundee 26.5
Perth and Kinross 26.3
Fife 25.1
North Ayrshire 23.9
South Ayrshire 21
East Lothian 19.7
Orkney Islands 19.2
Falkirk 19.1
East Dunbartonshire 18.4
Argyll and Bute 18.1
West Lothian 17.9
North Lanarkshire 17.4
East Ayrshire 16.2
Edinburgh 15.9
Renfrewshire 15
Aberdeenshire 12.5
Shetland Islands 9.6
Highland 9
Glasgow 8.8
Eilean Siar 8.6
Scottish Borders 7.8
West Dunbartonshire 7.1
Inverclyde 6.8
Dumfries and Galloway 5.7
Midlothian 4.7
Aberdeen 3.5
Further information
The full report can be found on the SEPA web site.
For stats on the landfill allowance scheme in Scotland go to this SEPA web page.