Falkirk bin collections to change again

The local authority signed up to the Scottish Government’s Scottish Household Recycling Charter which will signal changes to the way residents’ bins are collected either in September or next summer.

Different options are currently being considered by the council, but it could mean another bucket to fill through a three-stream bin system – one for glass; one for card and paper and another for metal plastics on top of the existing food waste and residual bins.

The charter is also being led by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Zero Waste Taskforce and aims to deliver ‘cost effective and high performing recycling services’ that will reduce costs for councils and help householders recycle more.

Council Leader Councillor Craig R Martin said: “Being the first local authority in Scotland to sign up to this charter shows just how keen we are to make it a great success.

“By using this more consistent approach, it will reduce costs and allow residents to have a clear understanding of how important it is to recycle correctly.”

The charter was launched at the Roughmute recycling centre in Bonnybridge last week with Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead.

He said: “This new, consistent approach to recycling will help sweep away the confusion that we all face every time we come across yet another difficult recycling system.”

Making money from rubbish

The district’s recycling rate was 54.3 per cent in 2014. There has also been a 75 per cent increase in food waste recycling since March last year.

The average cost of processing waste is expected to reach £65 per tonne which would see Falkirk Council paying over £648,000 for the 2015/16 financial year. This would rise to £780,000 in 2016/17.

To reduce costs the council will now process waste at its existing transfer facility which will be adapted for the works.

This will bring costs down to just over £280,000 a year, create 10 jobs in the process and reduce gate fees by almost two thirds to £23.41 per tonne. The council would also retain any income made from the processing and sale of recycled material which would reduce costs further.