All change for collection of garden rubbish and food waste bins from houses across Falkirk

The change will mean that people’s brown bins – which are currently just for garden waste – will be collected every fortnight throughout the year.

The proposal by the SNP administration was agreed by members of Falkirk Council when it met last week to agree its capital budget.

But it won’t happen straight away.

The meeting heard that it will be necessary to build a new facility at its Bo’ness recycling centre, Kinneil Kerse, at a cost of about £300,000.

However, councillors were told that the new system will save an estimated £400,000 every year once it is up and running but that won’t be straight away.

A council spokesperson said: “We hope to complete the necessary procurement and the construction this financial year and it will be next year before the service would start.”

The council hopes that the new arrangements will encourage more households to use the food waste collections.

The SNP’s environment spokesperson, Councillor Paul Garner, said: “Collections of this type are quite common throughout Scotland.

“In order to achieve this efficiency, the council requires a purpose-built food waste transfer facility at a cost of £300,000.”

He added that the change would benefit the council as it is estimated that around one-third of waste in “green bins” is actually food waste.

Reducing landfill would help the council’s net zero ambitions as will the fact that it will reduce the number of vehicles needed by six.

It will also reduce the need for the manufacture of grey food caddies, said Councillor Garner.

Concerns from residents about food waste lying in bins for two weeks was rejected by the local authority, saying: “There are a number of councils who already operate the collection service in this way without any problems.”

However, the issue of what will happen about collecting food waste from those households who don’t currently have brown bins, such as flat dwellers, is still be resolved.

The council spokesperson added: “We would look on a case by case basis on the current collection systems and look to put in solutions. We wouldn’t be collecting the grey food caddies with this collection arrangement.”

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