Scotland's local authorities have been told they must recycle more waste.

An Accounts Commission report found wide variations between councils, with Dundee City doing best and the Western Isles worst.

The study said 90% of refuse is still buried in landfill sites.

Only 7.4% of the three million tonnes of household and commercial waste collected by councils in 2001/02 was recycled.

Recycling record

A target has been set to recycle 25% of all waste by 2006 Dundee City Council comes out top, recycling 21.1% of its waste The Western Isles comes last, recycling 1.9%

The chairman of the Accounts Commission attacked councils over their record, saying that they "still have a lot of work to do".

Alastair MacNish said: "It is not acceptable for councils to recycle low levels of waste and some councils are nowhere near meeting the target.

"If Scotland's recycling record is to improve, councils need to make recycling easy and convenient."

The Scottish Executive has set a target of 25% of all waste being recycled or composted by 2006, more than three times the current figure.

To reach this, every council would have to reduce the amount of refuse going to landfill by one tonne per household over the next three years.

The executive has announced funding of almost �110m to help achieve these targets.

Scotland's recycling record is poor

A spokesman said: "We will shortly be announcing Scotland's first National Waste Plan, which will provide the framework for reducing the dependence on landfill."

However, Friends of the Earth's (FoE) head of research, Dr Dan Barlow, said the figures showed that "we are simply not doing enough".

He said: "We need to see the rapid introduction of doorstep recycling for every household in Scotland and the funds made available to allow councils to deliver the types of recycling and composting schemes the public desires."

Figures from FoE show that, while Scotland recycles less than 8% of its waste, Switzerland recycles 52% and the Netherlands 45%.