Residents are eco champs

More than 60 per cent of household waste is being recycled in East Renfrewshire — and new figures reveal that is the highest rate of any local authority in Scotland.

The latest statistics were released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and cover the period from January to December 2016.

East Renfrewshire recycled more than 29,000 tonnes of waste in 2016, making the council the first in the country to hit the 60 per cent milestone.

A new four-bin collection service was introduced in October 2016 to enable residents to recycle more.

Councillor Alan Lafferty, convener for environment at East Renfrewshire Council, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for East Renfrewshire and shows that we are leading the way when it comes to encouraging our residents to recycle more.

“The success of our new four bin service has undoubtedly helped us to hit this target and, with a full year of figures for 2017 still to come, I look forward to seeing this continue to increase.”

The latest figures show that less than 18,000 tonnes of waste was sent to landfill in 2016 — over 2,000 tonnes less than the previous 12 months.

It cost £2.2million sending household waste to landfill in 2015, much of which could have been recycled, bosses say.

However, since the introduction of the new fourbin recycling scheme the council has made significant savings in excess of £300,000.

The service introduced two new wheeled bins.

A blue bin has been provided for paper, cardboard and cartons, and a green bin for plastics, glass and cans.

The service change means that residents’ grey bin for non-recyclable waste and the two new bins are collected on a three-weekly rotation.

Brown bins for food and garden waste are still collected on a weekly basis, although households are limited to one bin each.