Less than a third of councils have met the national target to recycle half of their household waste, official figures show.
Nine local authorities recycled over 50% of their waste last year, with the remaining 23 lagging behind the Scottish Government target to recycle half of all waste by 2013.
Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Falkirk and Perth & Kinross recycled the highest proportion of waste at over 55%.
Clackmannanshire was also among the most improved councils, recycling 7% more waste than 2011, while Inverclyde and Moray boosted their recycling by 9% and 7% respectively to meet the 50% target.
East Renfrewshire, Fife and North Ayrshire were the three other local authorities to meet the target. Shetland, Dumfries & Galloway, Orkney and Glasgow recycled the lowest proportion of waste ranging from 13% to 29%.
Orkney and Shetland were amongst the areas where performance regressed, recycling 7% and 3% less waste than 2011 respectively. Recycling also slid by more than 3% in the Borders and Renfrewshire.
Scottish households recycled 41.2% of their waste on average in 2012, up 1.1% on the previous year with one year to go to meet the 2013 target. The Scottish Government’s long-term aim is to recycle 70% of Scotland’s waste by 2025.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “Today’s figures show that over half of Scotland’s local authorities are above the national recycling average, with nine already hitting the 50% target – two more than last year. We can also see that Scottish households produced 100,000 tonnes less waste last year.
“Building on and accelerating this progress is a priority for the Scottish Government, as it is for local authorities, and that is why we’ve invested £20 million to help local authorities roll out food waste collections to households across the country.
“Close to half a million households have received a new food waste service already this year, meaning one million households in Scotland now have a service to collect and recycle their food waste. The impact of this investment will be seen in next year’s figures.
“The Scottish Government will continue to seek the advice of Zero Waste Scotland on what other initiatives can be taken forward to improve Scotland’s recycling performance, including a national deposit-return scheme.
“However, the zero waste agenda is about much more than just recycling – it’s about turning our waste into an economic asset that will improve the competitiveness of Scotland’s economy.
“We continue to work closely with the businesses and organisations like the Ellen Macarthur Foundation to stimulate these important opportunities.”