Waste and Recycling

Introduction

Waste Management in Scotland is currently facing a period of radical change. Driven by European Legislation and public expectation as well as pressing environmental problems, we must find ways of reducing our dependence on landfill and moving towards more sustainable methods of managing wastes.

South Ayrshire Council has decided to work towards achieving their recycling and waste management targets with easy to use kerbside recycling services for household and business waste. The Council is also working with North and East Ayrshire Councils on a joint waste treatment project, which will enable the three Councils to meet future landfill diversion targets.

Our current waste recycling services in South Ayrshire include:

• Separate Collections of Glass using wheeled bins or boxes
• Separate collections for paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and cans
• Separate collections for garden waste

The glass and co-mingled collections of paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and cans are sent to a recycling plant and recycled.

The garden waste is sent to a composting plant and processed into compost for use as a soil conditioner.

South Ayrshire Council achieved an overall recycling rate of 43% in the year 2007/08, which was the second highest recycling rate of all the Councils in Scotland. This was an excellent achievement, but increasingly more challenging recycling rates in future years mean that all members of the community must remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their waste wherever possible.