Scotland launch Zero Waste campaign

A Zero Waste campaign has been launched to encourage Scotland to recycle more.

The campaign will work in partnership with local authorities and grocers to educate the public on how they can do their bit in their local area in the form of nation-wide road shows.

Television, radio and outdoor adverts will be seen across Scotland for up to six weeks.

A Scottish Government report has shown items such as newspapers, magazines and glass that are being recycled at high levels in Scotland, but also outlines waste streams that now need to be targeted.

Scotland has moved from being almost wholly dependent on landfill disposal of waste to nearly 36 per cent of all municipal waste being recycled. The report shows the average Scottish household throws out 260kg of recyclable items each year.

The total amount of waste has reduced from 10.9 million tonnes to 7.4 million tonnes and European Union landfill diversion targets were met 18 months early.

The Scottish Government aims to also adopt a new goal of Zero Waste through a new Zero Waste plan, thus eliminating the unnecessary use of raw materials, sustainable design, recovering value from products at the end of their lives, reusing and recycling according to the waste hierarchy.

Environment Secretary, Richard Lochhead, said: "Recycling can really make a difference, diverting waste from landfill and, in turn, help us on the road to becoming a zero waste society."

"An extraordinary 67 per cent of newspapers and magazines are currently recycled, along with 60 per cent of glass bottles. This, of course, is fantastic but we should all constantly challenge ourselves to recycle more items, more often, and hopefully see the likes of metal cans, card and plastic bottles jump to the same recycling levels."

Further information:
Zero Waste