Appendix 1 – responses to Scottish Government questionnaire
Argyll and Bute Council · 18 December 2025
Back to Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee — 18 December 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
Appendix 1 Local Authority Service Charging for Waste and Recycling Collections - Survey When you submit this form, it will not automatically collect your details like name and email address unless you provide it yourself. 1.Which Local Authority are you responding on behalf of? Argyll and Bute Council 2.To what extent do you support or oppose the current system which allows charging for Local Authority waste and recycling services? Strongly Support x Support Neither Support nor Oppose Oppose Strongly Oppose 3.Please consider providing more details about the reasons for your answer below: Income received from charging for these services contributes to offsetting the cost of delivery Charging also supports the "polluter pays" principle and provides an opportunity to demonstrate to householders the cost of managing their waste Free services would increase demand to an unsustainable level, both financially and environmentally, especially for bulky uplift services, and would require an exponential increase in resources required to provide the services (staff and vehicles) Our preference would be to continue with existing arrangements i.e. chargeable council collections, use Household Waste Recycling Centres and producer responsibility schemes for WEEE
Page 2
4.To what extent do you believe that the current charging structure encourages or discourages recycling? Strongly encourages Encourages Neither encourages or discourages x Discourages Strongly discourages 5.Please consider providing more details about the reasons for your answer below: Our current charging structure is designed to assist with cost recovery for the the service and is not designed to reflect the recyclability of materials collected. Introducing different categories of charge based on recyclability would be overly complex and could deter responsible disposal of items, for example WUDS 6.To what extent would removing Local Authorities' ability to charge residents for waste and recycling services affect the Council's financial capacity to sustain other essential public services? Significant negative impact x Negative impact No impact Positive impact Significant positive impact 7.Please consider providing more details about the reasons for your answer below: See answer to question 3. The removal of charges for bulky uplifts would increase demand exponentially and result in a financially unsustainable service. This is especially true for Argyll and Bute with high levels of rurality and inhabited islands that are reliant on ferry transport This would also negatively impact retailer takeback schemes
Page 3
8.Do you believe central funding – removing the need for separate council charges for garden and bulky waste uplift – would increase the likelihood of Local Authorities expanding or enhancing their waste and recycling services? Significantly increases likelihood Increases likelihood Neither increases or decreases likelihood x Decreases likelihood Significantly decreases likelihood 9.Please consider providing more details about the reasons for your answer below: Central funding does not always correlate to sustained improvement in services, as it is not guaranteed in the medium to long term 10.Do you consider that removing charges for waste services across Scotland’s Local Authorities would deliver better waste, recycling, reuse and circular economy outcomes? Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree x Disagree Strongly disagree 11.Please consider providing more details about the reasons for your answer below: See answer to question 3 In addition, there is insufficient data and evidence to demonstrate the impact that removing charges for recycling services to have 12.Do you feel that there are circumstances unique to your local authority, and similar local authorities, that may require a different approach? Yes Argyll and Bute is the second-largest local authority in Scotland by land area, covering nearly 9% of the country. It has one of the sparsest populations in Scotland, with an average of 13 persons per square kilometre, compared to the Scottish average of 71. o 43.2% of the population live in remote rural areas.
Page 4
o 4.4% live in accessible rural areas. o 47.6% of the population overall are classified as living in rural areas under the Scottish Government’s Urban-Rural Classification o In addition there are 28 inhabited islands, with around 17.5% of the population living on them. All of the above present significant challenges in delivering and accessing services within the council area 13.Do you have any suggestions on how to encourage the reuse of bulky waste items that are too large for standard waste receptacles, for example dining tables, couches or other furniture that are in good condition? Promotion of reuse options available via social media, council website and customer contact centre 14.Should there be exemptions or reduced charges for low-income households, and if so, how should these be determined? Yes No Don't know x 15.Regarding your answer to question 13, how should charges be structured to ensure fairness across different household types (e.g., based on income, household size, urban vs rural areas)? Please consider providing details about the reasons for your answer here: The council has insufficient data to provide a meaningful response on the impact on exemptions or reduced charges