Household Recycling Code of Practice: Consultation document

Background and Case for Change

Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 forms part of Scotland’s wider transition towards a more circular economy, in which resources are kept in use for as long as possible and waste is reduced. The Act places a duty on Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish a statutory Code of Practice relating to household waste recycling. Once the Code is in force, it also places a duty on local authorities to set out how they will carry out the functions in the Code via an Integrated Waste Management Plan.

The development of a Household Recycling Code of Practice is intended to support the improvement of recycling performance, greater consistency in recycling services, and increased diversion of recyclable materials from the residual waste stream. The new Code builds on Scotland’s existing Household Recycling Charter Code of Practice, which has helped shape recycling service provision since 2015.

Current variation in household recycling services

Requirements for waste collections in Scotland are set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Based on these requirements, in delivering their duties Scottish local authorities currently operate a wide range of household waste and recycling collection systems. These services have evolved over time to reflect local circumstances, including geography, settlement patterns, housing stock and infrastructure.

While this flexibility has enabled councils to develop services that work in their local areas, it has also resulted in significant variation in the design and delivery of recycling services. Differences exist in areas such as:

• the materials collected for recycling;
• collection methods and container types/colours;
• food waste service provision;
• garden waste service provision;
• residual waste capacity, and;
• approaches to contamination management and public communications.

This has led to significant variation in the recycling rate of local authorities in Scotland which, in 2025, ranged from 18.2% to 56.5%. Whilst some of the variation is a consequence of geography, housing stock and other local factors, it is evident that uneven provision contributes to uneven performance. Several local authorities in Scotland have consistently achieved recycling rates between 50-60% in recent years.

The Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund allocated over £66 million to 48 projects in 27 local authorities, helping to improve recycling and reuse infrastructure, reduce waste and keep more valuable materials in circulation. This helped local authorities to deliver better services but also increase their alignment with the current voluntary Code of Practice. However, while most households have access to recycling services that align broadly with the voluntary Code, there continue to be significant inconsistencies. The extent of change required by local authorities to align with parts of the Code is discussed below in some sections.

The need for greater consistency

The case for greater consistency in household recycling services is informed by evidence from Scotland’s experience of implementing the voluntary Charter and associated Code of Practice for Household Recycling, analysis of household recycling performance, and wider work undertaken to support the development of the Circular Economy and Waste Route Map.

Although the Charter and its Code of Practice for Household Recycling has helped drive greater consistency in recycling services since 2015, progress in household recycling performance has slowed. Scotland's household recycling rate increased from 39.6% in 2011 to 42.8% in 2025, with performance remaining relatively stable at around 42-45% over much of the last decade.

The development of a new co-designed Household Recycling Code of Practice was a priority action set out in Delivering Scotland’s Circular Economy: Route Map to 2030 and strongly supported in public consultation. As set out in The Route Map, improving consistency in household recycling services is an important part of creating a more effective and accessible recycling system. It highlighted the role that consistent services can play in increasing public participation, reducing contamination and improving recycling outcomes.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Report^[2] is available to support this consultation. It focuses on the costs and benefits of alignment with the existing Code of Practice and outlines how certain service design features are associated with improved recycling and environmental outcomes. In particular, higher performing systems were associated with separate food waste collections, separate kerbside glass collections and lower levels of residual waste capacity. The analysis also found that contamination rates were generally lower where recyclable materials, such as paper and cardboard, were collected separately to plastic and metal containers.^[3] The evidence indicated that greater consistency could support improvements in material quality and recycling performance by increasing the capture of recyclable materials and reducing contamination.

Stakeholder input to the co-design process broadly reinforced the evidence base, with stakeholders recognising the potential benefits of greater consistency while emphasising the need for sufficient flexibility to reflect local circumstances and operational constraints. Engagement with members of the public via two group sessions also highlighted a strong desire for consistency and simplicity across recycling services and communications. Participants agreed there should be greater alignment between rules, systems and advice.

Environmental and service delivery benefits

The Code of Practice is intended to support improved environmental outcomes and more effective service delivery across Scotland.

By establishing a common framework for household recycling services, the Code aims to increase the capture of recyclable materials and improve the quality of materials collected for recycling. This can help ensure that more materials remain for longer within the circular economy and reduce the amount of recyclable material entering the residual waste stream.

In addition, a more consistent approach to household recycling services can support wider system benefits, including improved alignment with producer responsibility reforms, greater certainty for waste management operators and reprocessors, and improved efficiency across the recycling value chain.

As this consultation and associated documents set out, much of the analysis is based on what is already working well in parts of Scotland. The intention is to increase the consistency of waste collection and recycling service delivery based on the performance of services that are already delivering higher recycling rates and better services to the public. Through these changes, consistency with the Code will contribute to Scotland's wider objectives of increasing recycling, reducing waste, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and supporting the transition to a circular economy.