By Professor John Robertson
Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this.
From SEPA on 26 March 2024:
Scottish recycling rate reaches all time high as Scottish households, businesses and public services recycle 62.3% of all waste in the latest data (2022) from Scotland’s environmental watchdog, SEPA.
The recycling rate increased 5.3% from the 57.0% rate in 2021 – reflecting economic recovery from the pandemic and an increase in the proportion of construction and demolition material recycled.
Scotland continues to reduce its reliance on landfill – with only 23.2% of all wastes ending up in landfill – an all-time low.
Supporting the shift from landfill is the small but important role played by energy from waste (incineration) facilities, which saw an 8.3% increase in Scottish waste being treated by incineration in 2022.
Scots are recycling more than ever before as the nation’s recycling rate hits an all-time high in data released by Scotland’s environment watchdog, SEPA.
SEPA. https://beta.sepa.scot/news/2024/scotland-s-recycling-rate-hits-all-time-high/
I can’t find comparable data for the rest of the UK but, hey, improvement is good, worth knowing about.
Try searching ‘BBC Scotland recycling’ and get:
Circularity Scotland: Bottle return scheme firm ‘on brink of collapse’
Why has Scotland’s deposit return scheme been delayed?
Try in the week around the SEPA release and get:
E-waste ‘drawers of doom’ growing, say campaigners
Scotland’s climate target unreachable says watchdog
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I wonder how the unionists will twist this, especially if the figures for rUk are worse. Last time Scottish recycling was mentioned, they said we exported half of our plastics etc to third world countries.
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With a fully implemented Deposit Return Scheme, theses rates would have been even higher. But of course Waste minister can’t be having those uppity Scots showing them up as failures.
Dottie
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“Try searching ‘BBC Scotland recycling’ and get”….(followed by negativity)
Trying searching the BBC website in Scotland for anything that resembles or highlights positive news when connected to either the FM, the SNP or the Scottish government and you would be hard pushed to find it “…….however if looking for negativity on any of the above via the BBC…and you will ‘Hit the jackpot’ or even ‘Hit the Motherlode’ etc etc etc
One suspects that the code of conduct , via BBC Scotland news, have added a compulsory #SNPBAD addition hence their obvious agenda, as in #SNPBAD, that they always seem to adopt that must be one that is constantly pursued and broadcast via their various Radio and TV news output…..plus also adding various excessive articles on their website & other online sources too…..which also adheres to this code of conduct that promotes #SNPBAD.
Everything and anything in Scotland is politicised in relation to our government via the BBC here…..as seems the BBC news teams have a job to do….which for them seems to be to merely reflect upon what they say the actual news is in relation to politics in Scotland…….. as opposed to just reporting on all of the actual political news as is (that must apparently, via the BBC here, include biased speculation and bitter contributions from representatives of parties who oppose the SNP)……all done to try to influence the public on what they , the BBC, say is their versions of the political “news where we are”…..also known as BBC fake news.
NMRN
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O/T
This from Open Democracy:
“Labour in ‘cash for access’ scandal over meetings with £150k donor”
“Labour top brass including Keir Starmer gave Bloomberg ‘exclusive’ look at party’s financial plan at private meeting”
“Labour leader Keir Starmer, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, and four other senior party figures met with a major media and financial information conglomerate weeks after it donated £150,000 to the party – sparking concerns of “cash for access” from transparency campaigners”.
“The meeting between Labour and the Bloomberg group, which took place in Edinburgh on 8 December last year, was described as “suspicious” and “highly unusual” by two Labour sources”.
“The private roundtable event came shortly after the US business conglomerate, majority owned by American businessman and politician Michael Bloomberg, made its first donation to Labour in seven years. The donation was made by a Bloomberg subsidiary called Bloomberg Trading Facility Limited”.
“The party used the meeting to offer Bloomberg and others in attendance “an exclusive dive” into its flagship financial services policy document, which was published the following month, according to a social media post by a person involved in coordinating the event”.
“Labour did not deny that the meeting was connected to the donation, with a spokesperson telling openDemocracy: “It is standard practice for the Labour Party to meet with the private sector.” The party did not reply to openDemocracy’s query about whether Bloomberg was given exclusive access to the flagship financial services policy document. Bloomberg declined to comment for this story.
“The Edinburgh event was facilitated by Sovereign Strategy, a lobbying firm that has represented Bloomberg for almost two decades, which promises to get its clients’ “messages heard at the highest levels of government”, according to the firm’s website”
“Lobbyists often hold such events to introduce their clients to Labour frontbenchers so they can try to shape the party’s policy on issues relevant to their businesses”.
“But two Labour sources, who spoke to openDemocracy on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation for appearing critical of the party’s leadership, said the Edinburgh meeting was “highly unusual” and “suspicious” due to the sheer number of senior politicians present”.
“Starmer and Reeves were joined at the event by shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq, as well as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Daniel Johnson MSP, the party’s business spokesperson in Holyrood”.
“Other comparable meetings are typically attended by only one or two shadow ministers. openDemocracy has analysed more than 200 meetings attended by Labour frontbenchers in the past year based on publicly available data and triangulation through multiple sources, and found the Edinburgh meeting involved far more senior figures than any other.”
“The meeting took place less than two weeks after Bloomberg Trading Facility Ltd, a subsidiary of Bloomberg LP, donated £150,000 to Labour – with the conglomerate becoming one of the party’s top corporate donors for all of 2023 in a single day, according to Electoral Commission records”.
“A Bloomberg company last made a cash donation to the Labour Party in late 2016, when it gave the party £60,000. The firm has since handed the Conservatives £260,000, most recently donating £100,000 in June 2022”.
“Simon Youel, the head of policy and advocacy at not-for-profit advocacy group Positive Money, told openDemocracy that voters should be worried by the timing of the meeting – which took place as Labour finalised a key document to set out its policy on the financial services sector”.
“What is most concerning is that weeks after this meeting, Labour published a plan for financial services that reads like a love letter to Big Finance, with much in there that could have been written by the industry itself,” Youel said”
This is part of Open Democracy’s series of articles on Dark Money in politics….’cash for access’ which is something we have come to only, in the past , associate as linked to the Tory party but now more information is being released in relation to the Labour party and their donors….so I am thankful to sites such as this and also to Open democracy as we then get to really see that with Labour as the next UK government there are some things that will never actually “Change” or feel like a “Fresh start”…..as in if you, as a wealthy donor, donate to a political party then chances are you ,as a donor , will then ‘ get great value for your donations via future policies, initiatives and future government plans being adopted that favour your business and personal financial interests ‘….where as Joe public….not so much…….strange how we the people elect them as a government (well some of us that is) yet much of their policies are driven by the needs and wants of those who support them financially……that seems to be the way politics in their UK operates.
NMRN
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