New Bin System 'Shouldn't Cause Confusion'

Fife Council denies its new recycling system will be confusing for residents.

Coaltown of Balgonie, Markinch, Thornton and Stenton will trial two different versions of a new collection routine for their four bins, with landfill being emptied less and cans and plastics (green) being collected more.

Councillors on the Glenrothes Area Committee will hear about the plans later for trials to start in September.
The routes were chosen for the trials because

• They have been on the four bin service for over two years so households are used to the recycling service and there is lots of pre-trial monitoring data
• The areas are representative of Fife as a whole in terms of council tax banding
• Recycling rates are average for Fife
• Recycling points / recycling centre are close by so the impact on the use of these sites can be monitored as part of the trial.

Ken Gourlay, Head of Assets, Transportation and Environment said: “People all over Fife have been telling us they want plastics and cans collected more often, so the trials are responding to this. In a doorstep survey we found over 66% of green bins were full or overly full at collection time. So, on one trial route we’ll empty them every three weeks, and on the other route we’ll empty them fortnightly.

“We also found that only a third of the waste in household landfill (blue) bins actually needed to go to landfill. More than half of the rubbish could have been recycled in other wheelie bins – freeing up space in the green bin should help with this. Still more of the waste could go to recycling points or centres, so if we keep working with people, there’s definitely scope to reduce blue bin collections.

“We’ll be providing more information for all the residents who’ll be involved and meeting many people in person. We’ll also make arrangements for bigger blue bins or more frequent collections for households with medical waste or large families with children in nappies so people shouldn’t be anxious about this.

“It’s important to stress that these are just trials. But we need to try something different because, although Fifers are good at recycling and we should meet the Government’s target of recycling 60% of waste by 2020, it’s going to take a lot more to achieve the 2025 target of 70%. The four bin system has been a success but, with landfill tax rising, if we can’t make more improvements waste disposal could cost us an extra £1.5 million each year.”

The trials will run in the Glenrothes area from September for at least nine months so that recycling results can be realistically compared to the rest of Fife. Collection schedules will as follows:

Seven options were originally considered by the council’s Executive Committee for potential future recycling services. These included changes to the collection frequency of all bins and adding a 4-weekly glass bin collection. Five options were rejected as the costs were too high, the increases in recycling rates wouldn’t be worth the investment or they were unworkable operationally.