‘Joint commitment’ needed on recycling

Date Added - 18/06/12

Moray’s record on recycling has hit a new high – but more needs to be done if next year’s Scottish Government target is to be met.

Householders in Moray recycled 45.4% of waste in 2011-12, compared with 42.4% the previous year.

But that still leaves some way to go if the government’s target of 50% is to be achieved next year.

Although the volume of waste going to the landfill site at Dallachy has been steadily decreasing, Moray Council’s landfill tax bill for last year still came to nearly £2million.

Landfill tax is currently £64 per tonne and that is due to rise to £72 next year and £80 the year after.

The most recent waste audit carried out by council staff found half of the waste being deposited in green household bins should have gone for recycling.

Councillor Fiona Murdoch, chairman of the council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee, said a joint commitment was needed from the council and local residents if the challenging recycling targets were to be met.

“The council needs to provide a collection service to allow householders to segregate the majority of recyclable materials from non-recyclable materials easily and effectively,” she said.

“For their part householders need to make full use of the collection service and recycling facilities which are available.”

The latest audit carried out in March involved collecting household waste from 35 domestic properties each day for a week and sifting through it to find out what  households in Moray were throwing away.

Disappointingly it was found that the average green bin still contained around 50% recyclable material – most of it food waste.

The council’s waste management officer, Steve Williamson, said: “The heaviest content of the bin by far was food waste which represented 29% by weight.

“Although this is a 20% drop from the previous waste audit it still means the average household in Moray is throwing away over 4.5kg (10lbs) of food waste every fortnight.

“With the introduction of the food waste collection scheme to households last year, it is still very disappointing that all this food waste is still going to landfill and not going into people’s brown bins for recycling.”