GLASGOW City Council has the highest carbon impact generated by household waste of any local authority in Scotland.
Meanwhile, Dumfries and Galloway has the highest carbon impact per person of any other Scottish local authority.
The SEPA figures are from 2019, pre-pandemic, as the updated figures for during the Covid crisis are not due to be released until December this year.
As Glasgow is set to host the COP26 global climate talks in a matter of weeks, The National has taken a look at publicly available data to see which Scottish council’s have the highest carbon impact when it comes to household waste.
READ MORE: Scottish Tories condemned for 'campaign of disinformation' on social media
Carbon is a shorthand term for the six greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, including carbon dioxide and methane.
The climate change impact of these is measured using a unit called carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).
Scottish council’s measure this unit in tonnes (TCO2e), and break the figures down to council-wide and the carbon impact per person.
Food waste and textiles such as clothing are the most carbon-intensive items to dispose of.
In 2019, Scotland produced 5,664,989.51 TCO2e in total from household waste alone.
Glasgow City Council had the highest carbon impact of all 32 local authorities, with 744,090 TCO2e.
In comparison, Edinburgh had the second highest output on the list with 471,188 TCO2e, followed by Fife (387,425 TCO2e), North Lanarkshire (361,416 TCO2e) and South Lanarkshire (337,048 TCO2e).
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “Reducing the amount of waste produced by the city is absolutely essential if we are to limit the carbon impact of things we throw away.
“Therefore the focus of our new resources and recycling strategy is to change how we view the materials we consume and encourage far greater re-use of the items that may otherwise be seen as rubbish to be dumped.”
Conversely, those with the lowest carbon impact tended to be island communities such as the Shetland Islands (29,253 TCO2e) and Na h-Eileanan Siar (36,485 TCO2e).
Clackmannanshire (53,323 TCO2e) and Inverclyde (58,006 TCO2e) had the lowest carbon impact of mainland local authorities.
READ MORE: George Monbiot: Independent Scotland could show a way out of climate crisis
When the data is broken down into TCO2e impact per person in each local authority, a different picture emerges.
Dumfries and Galloway tops the list with 1.41 TCO2e per person, much higher than the Scotland wide average of 1.04 TCO2e per person.
When The National approached Dumfries and Galloway council for comment on why this was so high, a spokesperson said, “The figures quoted are from two years ago” and directed us to a page on the council’s website setting out recycling services.
The council spent £30 million ending their old recycling contract and establishing a new system, which came into force in November 2020.
Glasgow City Council had the highest carbon impact through household waste
Argyll and Bute (1.37 TCO2e per person) followed next on the list of individual impact, followed by Na h-Eileanan Siar (1.37 TCO2e per person) and the Shetland Islands (1.28 TCO2e per person), who both have significantly smaller population sizes.
Kim Pratt, circular economy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “The carbon impact of waste is too high right across Scotland.
“The best way to reduce this is to stop materials becoming waste in the first place – councils need to do more to help people and businesses to repair and reuse products locally.
“We need to see more repair shops and tool libraries on our high streets so this is as easy as possible for everyone.”
READ MORE: TikTok, young people, and lessons for the Scottish independence movement
Adrian Bond, Recycling Manager for Zero Waste Scotland, said: “The upcoming waste statistics will no doubt reflect the unique conditions of 2020, with more people staying at home and the temporary closure of recycling centres.
“With COP26 mere weeks away, we must urgently slow our overconsumption of goods and keep existing materials in circulation through reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The latest data shows that the whole-life carbon impacts of Scotland’s household waste are at their lowest since records began.
“To accelerate progress, we will soon be making our first investments from the £70m Recycling Improvement Fund, one of the largest single investments in recycling in Scotland.”
Carbon impact per Scottish local authority in tonnes
(Highest to lowest)
Source: SEPA
Carbon impact per person by each Scottish local authority in tonnes
(Highest to lowest)
Source: SEPA
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel