Household Recycling Code of Practice: Consultation document

Impacts of Proposed Measures in the Code

Many of the expected standards and steps to be taken set out in the new Code of Practice are similar to the policy of the existing Code. Consequently, there is strong evidence that the proposed expected standards are both practical and deliverable in the Scottish context; they build on established practices t<hat are already being implemented effectively by many local authorities, providing confidence that they can be adopted more widely with positive results. A full draft of the Code of Practice for Household Waste Recycling is published with the consultation.

Modelling the impact of the Code of Practice

This consultation document is supported by three additional documents

• A Cost-Benefit Analysis Report. This informed initial consideration of measures early in co-design.
• A Co-design Report, that also includes modelling of the impact of the overall package.
• An addendum to the Co-design Report, Additional Organics Options, based on changes to proposals relating to organic waste (see section 4 below)

The Cost-Benefit Analysis Report assesses the impact of Scotland-wide adherence to the existing Code of Practice, or other successful collection systems currently operated by local authorities in Scotland, to understand which methods of service delivery were most beneficial for recycling rates and carbon reduction, and their relative costs. This research informed much of the early co-design discussion. Table 1 below shows the approximate contribution of key interventions in isolation. Where impacts and costs are reported for individual interventions (for example, twin-stream recycling) these are generally derived from the Cost-Benefit Analysis Report.

Whilst instructive, different recycling and waste services interact with each other and a change to one service will impact another. For example, increased recycling and food waste collection means that less waste is disposed of in residual waste and sent for incineration. It could mean that a vehicle and crew have to make more trips to households to collect recycling, but then consequently fewer for residual waste. As a result of these interactions, the impact of change to recycling services is more robustly assessed as part of a package of measures with a cumulative impact, which is set out in the Co-design Report and addendum on organic waste.

Attributing cost and impact

Table 1 below sets out the indicative scale of the modelled revenue and capital costs, recycling rate and carbon impact of some interventions that were considered in co-design. The Code being consulted upon does not propose changes in all of the areas below. Whilst a simplification, it is intended to summarise how costs and benefits of some measures compare.

*Note that pEPR funding will cover the majority of efficient and effective revenue costs for twin-stream recycling and glass collection and contribute to the cost of residual waste.

Individual sections of the Code and their impact are discussed in the following sections.

Modelled impact of the Code of Practice

The overall impact and the cost of changes to recycling and waste services are more robustly modelled as a whole-system. This is presented in the Co-design Report^[5] and Addendum on organic waste^[6] and summarised below.

The modelling referred to in this consultation is based on the most recent data available at the start of the co-design process from 2023, during which time Scotland achieved a household recycling rate of 43.5% (most recent data from 2025 indicated a marginally lower rate of 42.8%).

The key impacts of the Household Recycling Code of Practice are modelled to be:

• An increase in the national household recycling rate of between 2.4 – 2.9 percentage points
• An annual reduction in carbon emissions of approximately 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e)

The variation principally results from how local authorities choose to implement garden waste collections, with higher impact associated with widespread free collections. Note that the Co-design Report modelled an increase of 3.0 – 3.6 percentage points, prior to the organics options being revised based on co-design feedback regarding implementation. This is discussed in section 4 below.

Modelled costs of the Code of Practice

The costs of implementing the Household Recycling Code of Practice are modelled to be:

• A one-off upfront capital cost of approximately £78 million, based on the cost of vehicles and new bins
• A decrease in yearly operating costs for local authorities of between £5 – £12 million

The variation principally results from how local authorities may choose to implement garden waste collections, with a larger decrease in yearly operating costs associated with widespread use of charges for garden waste collections.

Changes to waste transfer stations could cost in the region of £24-32 million.^[7] However, the actual costs incurred will be highly specific to each local authority and it is not possible at this stage to confidently forecast these costs. Further detail on the assumptions that inform the modelling are available in the Co-design Report.

As discussed above, efficient and effective costs associated with the collection and management of packaging waste must be funded through payments made under pEPR. In 2026/27, these payment totalled £161 million to Scottish local authorities. The Scottish Government has continued to ensure that payments made under packaging EPR remain additional to existing local authority budgets for waste and recycling, on the understanding that this additional funding is used to invest in recycling services.

Household Recycling Code of Practice (service standards)