Ticking all the wrong boxes!

EWAN LAMB reports on the Borders' latest waste management performance

Hidden away in a 44-page annex of a report to be considered by Borders councillors this week are four ticks in separate boxes, indicating that the local authority is on target and in line with national trends when it comes to waste recycling and landfilling.

Hardly surprising that Scottish Borders Council has awarded itself four out of four passes when it is allowed to mark its own homework book.

The annual and quarterly performance reviews show that in 2016 SBC managed to recycle 39.07% of the rubbish it collected, up from 36.89% the previous year. At the same time the tonnage of garbage being buried actually increased although the overall percentage dropped from 62.2% to 60.7%.

However - perhaps conveniently - there is no mention of how SBC is doing compared to national averages or when their data is set alongside other Scottish local authorities who form a 'Family Group' for bench-marking purposes.

The Scottish Government's recycling targets continue to be missed by a country mile in the case of Borders. The aim was to achieve 50% re-use of waste by 2013, 60% by 2020 and 70% by 2025.

There seems little chance those ambitious heights will be reached by SBC following the complete collapse of its waste management strategy, the abandonment of a project which was designed to divert 80% of rubbish from landfill, and the recent decision by its own members to turn down a planning application for a waste transfer station.

According to this week's report to the influential SBC Executive: "Over the last four quarters there has been a small but consistent increase in recycling rate observed. This is thought to be related to the introduction of food waste kerbside collections, and in an increase in garden waste collected at the recycling centres.

"The tonnes of waste going to landfill have increased slightly over the period of the past four quarters. This could be related to economic activity. However, over this same period there has been a small but consistent decrease in the percentage of waste going to landfill.

Statistics for 2016 for all 32 Scottish local authorities will not be published by the Scottish Environment Protection Authority (SEPA) until September. But the 2015 data gives a snapshot of SBC's record compared to its brothers and sisters in that Family Group.

The Borders landfill figure of 62.2% for 2015 was only exceeded by Eilean Sar (Western Isles) Council on 64.8%. The other figures for the Group were Aberdeenshire 56.1%; Highland 54.6%; Argyll & Bute 48.7%; Shetland 22.0%; Dumfries & Galloway 29.3%; Orkney 23.9%.

The 2015 proportions of so-called other diversions from landfill (not including recycling) show SBC close to the bottom of the league. This section of the waste management figures comprises waste disposed of by incineration, recovered by incineration or managed by other methods.

The percentages for the Family Group were Dumfries & Galloway 43.5; SBC 1.79; Aberdeenshire 0.13; Argyll & Bute 17.4; Orkney 51.2;Eilean Sar 13.9;Shetland 68.8; Highland 0.9.

A fleeting reference to the "new" Easter Langlee waste transfer station merely tells us: "As planning consent was refused the project is now delayed and likely to incur significant additional cost".

Based on all available data the box ticking exercise which allows SBC to claim it is on target or in line with national trend or showing a long-term positive trend seems virtually meaningless.