Recycling & composting

Recycling and composting are the primary means of maintaining the value of end-of-use materials. For these options to be viable, two core issues must be addressed. Firstly, the materials must be capable of being recovered in a form in which they can be used.

Secondly, there must be a demand for the products. In terms of making the necessary progress in household waste recycling and composting in Scotland, there has been a major increase in the public availability of recycling sites, kerbside segregated collection services and other technologies for reclaiming materials from waste. These have been funded largely through the Scottish Government funding to local authorities.

The development of markets for the additional materials that will be collected is also a major priority and various initiatives described in the National Waste Plan (Chapter 6.5.2) are targeted at market development.