South Lanarkshire Council has failed to meet household recycling targets this year.
At the performance and review scrutiny forum yesterday (November 29), progress on the council’s resource plans was revealed, although the majority of the outcomes, 92 per cent of them, were progressing, 18 of them were reported as lagging behind.
The most significant one which was failing to progress was household waste that was recycled. This outcome was in the red which means there has been a major slippage against timescale or a major shortfall against target.
In the past year, the amount of household waste that has been recycled across South Lanarkshire sits at 40.28 per cent against the council’s 50 per cent target and behind last years’ 44.5 percent figure.
The council have stated the reason for failing to meet targets include higher waste being collected due to COVID and home working and more non-recyclable waste being disposed of in household waste recycling centres.
A new contract was put in place on April 1 2022 for bulky waste, this has increased the amount of bulky waste being recycled. The previous contract only managed approximately 15 percent whereas in the first three months of the new contract, 50 percent of this waste has been recycled.
Councillor Gerry Convery (East Kilbride Central South), asked if there would be an increase in household waste being uplifted, he said: “Could I ask about the recycling, because I know the figures have dropped from household recycling and there’s a new contract in place, so could someone maybe give us a bit of good news that they’re maybe going to be increasing the volume of recycling coming from houses?”
Council officers stated that there is work underway and there is a focus on maximising the service, the new contract has already been successful and will continue to increase the recycling collected from households with hopes to meet targets.
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