National litter and flytipping strategy: baseline report
This report was completed as part of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy (NLFS) year one action plan, action 18; to Improving consistency of flytipping data data by developing a flytipping baseline for Scotland, identifying data gaps and changes that may be needed in the future.
Appendix 3 – data rationalisation
Different local authorities use slightly different categories, so Anthesis rationalised the data to combine similar categories.
Size of the flytipping incident
No data rationalisation was undertaken for data shared by local authorities on the size of the flytipping incident. Once local authorities used the categories “small” and “medium”, however, it was challenging to rationalise this into the categories used by other authorities e.g., “small” could cover both single item, single black bag or car boot or less. Going forward standardised reporting categories would harmonise data on the size of the flytipping incident amongst stakeholders.
Land type
Data rationalisation was undertaken on land type. There were several categories (e.g., “highway”, “footpath/brindleway”) that were used by several authorities. No rationalisation was undertaken on these categories. Where there were land types that were common in nature we merged these to reduce the total overall (Table 7).
(Table 7) Data rationalisation carried out on land type data
Final category: Residential area
Original categories: Housing, back alley, private residential, flatted area, lane between houses
Final category: Waste disposal point
Original categories: Bin communal point, recycling point
Final category: Other
Original categories: Open land, blank, unknown, other
Given we only had primary data on land type from 6 authorities, it would be beneficial when gathering data in future years or when standardising reporting categories to disucss with all 32 Scottish local authorities whether the final categories used in this baseline are in fact representative of the data they collate.
Waste Type
Data rationalisation was also undertaken on waste type. There were several categories (e.g., “tyres”, “green”) that were used by several authorities. No rationalisation was undertaken on these categories. Where there were waste types that were common in nature we merged these to reduce the total overall (Table 8).
(Table 8) Data rationalisation carried out on waste type data
Final category: Trade waste
Original categories: Trade waste, demolition, rubble, construction
Final category: Mixed household
Original categories: Mixed waste, household waste - small
Final category: General household
Original categories: Black bags household, general waste
Final category: Other household
Original categories: Other household, side waste
Final category: Household bulky
Original categories: Furniture, household waste - bulky items, mattresses
As with land type, a limited number of authorities provided data on waste type, so further engagement would be required before these categories are standardised as they are not necessarily representative of the whole of Scotland.
Contact
Email: NLFS@gov.scot
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