Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food & Environment, Richard Lochhead, has announced that the Zero Waste Taskforce will release a household recycling charter in August in a bid to make recycling collections ‘more consistent’.

The taskforce – a joint initiative between Scottish Ministers and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), which also includes members from Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, and Scotland Excel, amongst others – met four times between March 2014 and June 2015 to ‘consider how to reap the benefits of a more circular economy through the services provided by local government’.

According to Lochhead, the group identified recycling as an ‘important element of a circular economy’, as it helps keep materials in use and reduces demand for new resources. However, the taskforce noted that Scottish councils currently employ a wide range of collection systems, which can ‘cause confusion over what can be recycled where’ and lead to recycling contamination.

Charter details

As such, the taskforce is now working to standardise recycling systems and communications through a recycling charter, which will reflect a commitment from local government to adhere to a set of principles on the design, operation and communication of services and policies on issues such as contamination.

It is expected that the charter will build on the provisions of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which require local authorities to provide householders with a collection service for dry recyclables and food waste, and will help improve participation and recycling rates, as well as recyclate quality.

All local authorities will be invited to sign up to the charter, following consideration and review by council leaders in August.

‘More consistent systems will cut down on confusion’

Announcing the news at Resourcing the Future 2015 Conference yesterday (25 June), Lochhead said: “I want to make it easier for people to recycle. Presently, there are a variety of different systems for collecting paper, glass, plastics, food waste and general waste across Scotland – you can go from one local authority to the bordering local authority and find different systems. While this is often the case for sound local reasons, as people move between different parts of Scotland, it can lead to materials becoming contaminated and losing value, fetching lower prices, and simultaneously increasing the costs to councils for sorting and cleaning.

“More consistent systems will allow councils to work together more efficiently, save money and cut down on confusion over what can be recycled where. [They also] will underpin a more circular economy [and] support the public, and local authorities, to keep their valuable materials in circulation, where they can be reused, repaired or remanufactured, and avoid them going to landfill.”

He added: “We have the opportunity to move from different recycling systems across 32 local authorities to a more common approach, based on best practice in different geographical areas. I am looking forward to working with COSLA on the next steps to finalise the charter and develop the detailed best practice that underpins these key principles.”

‘The most significant “bin day” in Scotland for decades’

COSLA Spokesperson for Development, Economy and Sustainability, Councillor Stephen Hagan of Orkney Islands Council, also commented, stating: “The 28th of August, when council leaders meet to consider this, could be the most significant ‘bin day’ in Scotland for decades. I’m hoping that leaders will agree then to this idea originating from local government to increase consistency of waste collections and make it easier for people to recycle. By so doing I believe we will not only drive up recycling rates but also improve public services, deliver value-for-money and promote local economic development and investment. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s support for joint leadership on this matter.”

He continued: “The circular economy has the potential to create jobs and economic development opportunities throughout Scotland, through keeping valuable resources in use for as long as possible. If, by changing our collection systems when they are up for renewal over the next decade, we can help to promote and support this approach, then that to me is councils talking and acting with common sense.

“However, even with consistent systems, we still need the help and support of the public to ensure that systems are used correctly and to their maximum to get best value for money. Doing that is in all our interests.”

The move has been welcomed by UK drinks manufacturer Coca-Cola Enterprises, with a spokesperson stating: “The intention to develop a new household recycling charter in Scotland is very welcome news. We have long called for a more consistent approach by local authorities to recycling collection schemes. Having talked to our consumers about their attitudes to recycling, many are still not clear on what materials can be recycled, what materials are collected by their local authority, what the benefit of recycling is, and many say that schemes can be difficult to understand. This initiative should help make it easier for Scottish householders to recycle. The Scottish Government and COSLA should be congratulated for this positive step.”

Wales’s Collections Blueprint

Scotland’s move to standardise recycling collections follows on from a similar strategy in Wales, which promotes the use of kerbside-sort systems.

Wales’s Collections Blueprint, launched in 2011, states that the Welsh Government’s recommended service profile for the collection of recycling from households is via kerbside sort (the separation of different material streams at the kerbside) as it ‘provides a system that, if adopted across the whole of Wales, would result in high rates of high quality recycling, significant cost savings and improved sustainable development outcomes’.

The blueprint has led four councils (Powys, Neath Port Talbot, Merthyr Tydfil, and Blaenau Gwent) to switch from co-mingled to separate collections.

An updated blueprint is expected later this year, following an independent review of the evidence base, in a bid to ‘take account of new developments in equipment, the results of pilots, changes in markets, and the need for new additional materials to be collected to meet the higher recycling targets’.

Find out more about the Collections Blueprint or the arguments for standardisation of recycling systems.