East Lothian Council is to introduce a food waste service and switch from weekly to fortnightly waste collections in a bid to raise recycling rates.

It is hoped that the new offering will help the council reach the Scottish Government’s targets of recycling 60 per cent of household waste by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2025. The council currently recycles around 44 per cent.

It is anticipated that the new changes to the collection service will see 12,000 tonnes more waste being recycled at the kerbside.

Collection change details

The main changes that will be implemented during April 2015 include:

• a new weekly collection of food waste;
• switching from weekly to fortnightly residual waste collections; and
• offering fortnightly garden waste collections to all households.

Leaflets outlining the changes have already been sent to residents, and the new garden waste service launched on Monday (6 April).

From Monday 13 April, indoor and outdoor food waste caddies will be delivered to householders, along with further information on how to use the service. The first collections will commence the following week.

The last weekly waste collection will take place on the week commencing 27 April, with the new fortnightly residual waste collection service starting the week after. It is expected that all the residual waste will be sent for energy recovery at Viridor’s incineration in Dunbar once it comes online in December 2017.

Recycling will continue to be collected via a dual-stream system (paper and card in one box, glass, cans and plastics in another) on a fortnightly basis.

‘Moving towards a sustainable future for waste management’

Willie Innes, East Lothian Council Leader, commented: “The new statutory obligations must be met as failure to meet targets could see the council being hit with very significant financial penalties.

“So we need to implement changes to make sure we’re moving towards a sustainable future for waste management in our county. As well as avoiding severe financial penalties, the strategy will be beneficial to our environment, as it reduces the amount of waste going to landfill.”

Dealing with dog waste

As well as recycling changes, East Lothian Council has also recently begun charging dog owners £1 for a roll of dog waste bags (that are available to be purchased from council offices and libraries).

This move was approved at a council meeting on 24 February after a survey found that 62 per cent of those polled supported the nominal charge.

It is hoped that the fee will lead to an estimated annual income of around £13,000. The money will be used to help cover production costs and fund schemes encouraging responsible dog ownership.

Find out more about the changes to East Lothian’s waste collection programme.