Aberdeen’s recycling rates are soaring as city residents have embraced a new green drive.
A controversial shake-up of the bin services last March, which included delivering new recycling containers, led to floods of complaints about missed pick-ups.
But new figures show that as of the March, that a massive 86.54% of the city’s rubbish was being diverted from landfill – ahead of the council’s target of 65%.
This is up from 63.99% in mid-2017.
Emotive scenes on David Attenbrough’s Blue Planet has led to an increased drive to recycle plastic especially.
Philip Bell, the council’s zero waste management sub committee convener, said the authority was looking to increase the rates even more ahead of tough Scottish Government targets to be introduced by 2021. Holyrood plan on ending landfilling of biodegradable waste by January 2021 and reducing the percentage of all waste sent to landfill to 5% by 2025.
In October, a new £27million new recycling plant opened in the city which can process 20 tonnes of waste every hour.
A £150million waste incinerator is being built in Tullos to process non-recyclable waste from the city, shire and Moray into heat and power for local homes.
However critics, including community councils and the local Green party, have questioned whether the Tullos facility will be required if the recycling figures continue to climb as there potentially would be no local waste to burn.
Mr Bell said: “This is really a fantastic effort from the citizens of Aberdeen who have really embraced recycling right across the city.
“I have to thank our city residents and council staff who have ensured that it is now easier than ever to recycle in Aberdeen.”
SNP group leader Stephen Flynn added: “It’s really encouraging to see that people living in the city are taking recycling to heart and I hope that these trends continue.”
