Must do more to improve recycling

This week Dundee City Council considered progress reports on the council's plan.  I was very concerned that Dundee City Council is still very far from meeting its targets for the recycling of household waste.

 

I have raised this important issue at the service committee before and I recognise that the urban environment of Dundee presents some challenges on recycling, and the way in which the pandemic hit last year’s figures.

I want to pay tribute to the waste management staff who have emptied our bins and tried to keep the city clean during the pandemic.  These people really are key workers.  They deserve our praise for their efforts over the last 18 months and they deserve the correct resources to do their job.

 

According to the statistics presented at the council meeting this week the percentage of household waste recycled or composted in 2020/21 was 33% a decrease from 38.4% the previous year and well below the target of 48% for last year.  By 2025 the Scottish Government expects us to more than double that percentage to 70%.

 

We have a dilemma here. There is little point in unattainable targets but we all know that we must do more to protect our environment.  There is no point in declaring a climate emergency and then not doing all that we can to promote recycling.

 

What are we going to do to reach the Scottish Government target?

 

Are the measures that are being taken actually going to help?  Many local people are concerned about plans to stop collecting so-called side-waste from bins.  How will the plan to stop taking side waste help?  Will it not lead to more fly-tipping?

 

I think that officers are doing their best with the limited resources that they have in order to keep our city clean and improve recycling do we not need to look at making sure that they have the resources to help them do that.

I am calling on Dundee City Council to take the target of 70% of household waste recycled seriously.  To protect the environment and show that we are taking the climate emergency seriously we need to make much more progress on this.