East Lothian has sixth highest recycling rate in Scotland

New figures released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that East Lothian recycled 53.1 per cent of its waste in 2023.

This is considerably higher than the national average of 43.5 per cent.

The recycling rate is the same as last year but means that the county has moved up one place from seventh to sixth among Scottish local authorities.

Top of the list was East Renfrewshire, which recycled 58.2 per cent of its waste, while Shetland finished bottom with a recycling rate of just 20.7 per cent, though a significant amount of its waste was still diverted from landfill - Na h-Eileanan Siar had the highest proportion of waste sent to landfill, 64.2 per cent, compared to just 4.7 per cent for East Lothian (the ninth best percentage in Scotland).

The period covered by the report is January to December 2023, so the figures do not take into account the changes made in moving to a three-weekly general waste collection, which came into effect on April 1.

Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian Council’s spokesperson on environment, said: "This is a great result for East Lothian, as this level of recycling means that we are saving more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2.

"I’d like to thank everyone in East Lothian for their efforts in helping protect our environment.

"It’s heartening to see that the message about the importance of recycling is getting across, as the amount of waste going to landfill has decreased right across Scotland, according to these latest figures.

"We expect that East Lothian’s recycling rate will be higher still when the 2024 figures are available, reflecting our new service provision of weekly recycling and three-weekly general waste – and the continued support, involvement and co-operation of our residents."