Putting readily recyclable rubbish into refuse costs councils £50m every year

Almost 60 per cent of household rubbish in refuse bins could have been recycled, costing councils more than £50 million a year, a new report has revealed.

A study by Zero Waste Scotland found that despite a “significant investment” in kerbside recycling systems, Scots chucked away approximately 670,000 tonnes of waste that could have been sent for recycling.

That is the equivalent of more than 275 kg of waste – more than 10 full wheelie bins – per household per year.

With councils having to pay to send rubbish to landfill, the cost to local authorities would be about £54 million a year, according to Zero Waste Scotland.

The figures were revealed in a new report looking at what households across the country put into kerbside collection bins in 2014-15 – with the organisation stating that the figures are still “broadly representative of the scale of the issue”.

A total of 1.78 million tonnes of material were put into traditional waste bins and various recycling bins - with food waste making up almost a quarter (23 per cent) of that at just under 410,000 tonnes.

Food waste, old paper and cardboard, garden waste and empty glass jars and bottles made up 68 per cent of everything that was put into household bins in Scotland.

The Zero Waste Scotland report said: “We estimate that approximately 670,000 tonnes, or just under 60 per cent of the residual waste, is made up of waste types that could typically have been recycled with existing kerbside recycling services.”

Typically only just over a quarter (27 per cent) of left

0 Rather than recycling where possible, many simply throw their wrapping paper, packaging, old Christmas cards and leftover food out with the rubbish