Waste usually attracts furious debate, but when the local newspaper reported that East Lothian Council will fail to reach the target to recycle half of residents’ waste by the end of 2013, there was little more than a stir. Nine out of 32 local authorities met or exceeded the target, while East Lothian Council was somewhere in the middle with 44.8% of household waste being recycled or composted. Targets are for technocrats (***), so what does the missed target actually mean? It seems that 52 thousand tons of household waste are generated in East Lothian and 23 thousand tons were either recycled or composted. That’s quite an achievement given where we have come from, but still rather a lot of football piches every year that would not get covered in rubbish, if we all recycled more.
We don’t know, yet, exactly how much waste is generated very locally nor do we have in depth details of recycling rates, but expect these very soon. In the days and weeks ahead we want to get a handle on current householder practices, attitudes and views, so will be asking householders in Dunbar and district to respond to a short survey. More about this very soon.
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*** The Scottish Government targets for household recycling and composting are:
40 per cent by 2010
50 per cent by 2013
60 per cent by 2020
70 per cent by 2025