THE pressing need for Scottish Borders Council to implement an effective waste management policy is evidenced this week in figures released by the local authority.

In its public performance report for the first quarter of 2015/16 (April 1 to June 30), SBC reveals that the proportion of household waste going to landfill topped 63.46%, compared to 58.35% in the corresponding three months of last year – a hike of just over 5%.

Since April 1, Landfill Tax has been levied by the Scottish Government at £82.60 per tonne – up from last year’s £80. Around two thirds of all the council’s landfilled household waste is subject to that levy.

Over the same three months, the percentage of household waste recycled in the region was 36.27% - down by 5.2% from the 41.47% achieved a year earlier.

Under Scottish waste regulations, a ban on all biodegradable waste going to landfill will come into effect in January, 2021 while the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste strategy demands that 70% of all waste is recycled by 2025. In June, the council agreed to set up a member-officer reference group to develop a new strategy after the existing plan – predicated on a multi-million pound incineration plant being constructed at Easter Langlee – collapsed when SBC withdrew from the contract, writing off £2m in the process.

A controversial element of the former strategy was the withdrawal of kerbside garden waste collections for 38,000 urban households in April last year.

This week’s report acknowledges that both the rise in the percentage of waste going to landfill and the slump in recycling were “expected…and due to the removal of the garden waste service”.

The council notes it is currently saving £450,000 a year as a result of green bin collections being axed.

It has been estimated, however, that if the landfill figure of 63.46% is not reduced, the council could be liable to an EU fine in excess of £2m.

Although such fines are currently suspended by the Scottish Government, ministers have previously indicated they could be applied if councils do not take measures to treat waste and divert it from landfill.