Recycling rates continue to climb

Have residents  really learned to love recycling?

Edinburgh has seen recycling rates rise thanks to the success of a new service alongside a focused campaign to increase uptake by the City of Edinburgh Council.

A surge in recycling for households receiving the new kerbside recycling service – rolled out to more than 140,000 homes over the last eighteen months – has seen the amount of waste recycled increase by 29% in 2015/16 compared to 2014/15.

Houses involved in the new service also produced 51% more food waste recycling in 2015/16 than in 2014/15, with the tonnage of food waste collected increasing at each phase of its roll out.

The upturn has contributed to a city-wide drop of 10% in the amount of waste sent to landfill since 2014/15, while the average city-wide rate of recycling has grown by 2.9% over the last year.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “I am delighted with these figures, which demonstrate just how effective the new recycling service has been.

“Obviously, updates to the system have been something of a culture change for those involved, but I’m pleased to see that, now it has bedded in, residents are really taking to recycling responsibly and reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill.

“We now want to see a similar uptake across the city’s tenemental and flatted  properties, which are served by communal  bins, and we are working hard to increase recycling provision and to make facilities as easy to access as possible.”

Over the last six months more than 940 communal dry mixed recycling bins and 617 communal glass bins have been installed on Edinburgh’s streets, with the roll-out of more communal recycling facilities planned for other areas of the city, making it easier for tenemental residents to recycle their waste.

Additionally, an interactive map, due to be launched next month, will help citizens locate communal recycling and landfill bins near their homes.

As well as an increase in on-street recycling provision, other actions aimed at facilitating more recycling over the coming year will include the ongoing audit of recycling resources for communal properties, and the ‘grouping’ of recycling and landfill bins near tenements.

It is hoped that the drive to increase recycling will see the citywide rate rise to 44.4% by the end of this year.

Find out more about recycling on the Council website.