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February 16, 2006
Scotland recycles 25 percent
According to the Friends of the Earth, Scotland now recycles 25% of its waste - better than it was, but not very impressive by international standards.
In East Lothian we achieved 30% in the third quarter of 2005. Here in Haddington, tins, glass and paper can be recycled via Tesco supermarket dumps in the centre of the town. However, as far as I know, there is no way to recycle plastics or (hazardous) batteries. (Edinburgh is similar, except I’ve never seen paper dumps there.)
When we lived in the Stirling District area (38% recycling rate), the council had a blue box collection scheme. This was good though in practice they rejected a lot of plastic that didn’t suit them. I don’t know whether there are any public composting schemes in Scotland for people who don’t have gardens.
By comparison, San Francisco committed itself to a ‘zero waste’ policy in 2002 and has now achieved a recycling rate of 67%, on course for 75% by 2010. They have a three container system dividing the rubbish into a green bin (food and garden waste which is composted), a black bin (general rubbish), and a blue bin (plastic, glass, and paper which are separated and processed by machine).
www.foe-scotland.org.uk/press/pr20060203.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/4499218.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack