Waste Collection Under Review

Fife Council admits 'considerable' effort must be made to meet a 2025 target of recycling 70% of all waste.

Proposals have been put forward to launch a 12 month trial in 4, 000 households across the region.

Several options are on the table, including reducing landfill collections to every four weeks and increasing paper and plastic collection to every fortnight.

It's aimed at improving recycling rates and making savings.

Two options will go before Councillors next week.

Option one would see:

Blue bin collections decrease to three weekly
Green bin collections increase to three weekly (from every four weeks)
Grey bin paper and card collection increase to three weekly (from every four weeks)
Brown bin collection every two weeks from March to October then every four weeks during winter from November to February

Option two would see:

Blue bin collections decrease to four weekly
Green bin collections increase to every two weeks
Grey bin paper and card collections staying at four weekly
Brown bin collection every two weeks from March until October then every four weeks from November to February

Chris Ewing, Chief Operating Officer, Resource Efficient Solutions, the new company set up by Fife Council to provide waste and consultancy services, said: "Fife is well placed to meet the Scottish Government target of 60% recycling by 2020 but considerable effort will have to be made now to meet the 2025 target of 70% recycling of all wastes.

"If no improvements are made to the current four bin system and the cost for landfill disposals stays the same this could cost the council an extra £1.5 million a year.

“So we’ve had to have a look at changes to collections to improve recycling rates and these two options identified could also save the council money too.

“Customer feedback on the four bin system was overwhelmingly in favour of increasing the current four weekly collection of the green bin.

“We need to know these options would work in homes across Fife though, so that’s why we’re asking councillors to give us the go-ahead to start trials in 4000 homes.

“If passed, we’ll monitor the results throughout the one year trial and then report back on the findings.

“The preferred option would then be put forward for approval and implementation across Fife. We see this taking over two years to do that from 2016 to 2018.”