Councillor praises Highland residents for success of new refuse and recycling collections

The Highland Council says that the transition to the new refuse and recycling collection service introduced to Caithness, Lochaber and Skye at the beginning of April has run very smoothly, thanks in large part to the positive attitude of householders.

The changes have seen the introduction to all residents of Skye and Lochalsh, Caithness and Lochaber of a fortnightly recycling collection for paper, cardboard, food tins, drink cans and plastic bottles, alternating with a fortnightly refuse collection.

Residents who received the blue bins two years ago, collected on a four week rota, are benefiting from more frequent collections of these whilst those in areas previously with blue boxes for paper or paper and tin cans are pleased to be able to recycle a greater range of materials from home; they are also being encouraged to make use of the redundant blue boxes to take their glass bottles and jars to Recycling Points and Centres. National figures show that there is still a huge amount of glass that could be recycled if householders made better use of the facilities provided by local authorities.

There has been very little contamination of the blue recycling bins with the wrong material; neither has there been a big increase in excess waste from the fortnightly refuse collections.

The new collections were first trialled in Skye and Lochalsh from last September until March this year.  Figures for the trial show a 40% increase in the amount of recycled material collected at the kerbside and a decrease in total refuse disposal of 300 tonnes when compared to the same period in the previous year. Every tonne of waste which is diverted from landfill saves the Council £56 on the landfill tax in addition to the environmental benefits.

Chairman of the TEC Services Committee, Councillor John Laing, praised residents for the way that they have taken on board the new collections. He said:  “When the mixed recycling bins were first introduced to some areas over two years ago the processor handling the material complimented the high quality of the collections. I think a positive attitude to recycling is in Highland blood! The alternate weekly refuse and recycling collections are an important part of the Council’s effort to meet the Scottish Government’s long term targets to recycle 70% of all waste by 2025.”

The new collections will be introduced to the whole Highland Council area over coming year.  In July the new service will be extended to Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey and in the autumn to Ross and Cromarty (excluding Wester Ross). Inverness is due to changeover early next year and Wester Ross and Sutherland in the spring or summer of 2012.

As part of the roll out recycling collections are also being offered to The Highland Council’s commercial customers.

The Highland Council’s Waste Awareness Team can offer advice on reducing waste and increasing recycling to both householders and businesses and can be contacted on 01349 886603.