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GREEN BINS ARE COMING
Published: 1st Mar 2010

PEOPLE in and around St Andrews who currently have three bins for their refuse and recycling will soon have a fourth, green bin as Fife Council strives for zero waste to landfill.

Following recent waste collection trials, the local authority's Environment, Enterprise and Transportation Committee agreed yesterday (Thursday, March 4 ) to extend the successful scheme piloted in Markinch to the whole of Fife.

Over the next few years the 145,000 households who currently have three bins will move to new arrangements to help them recycle food waste, plastics and cans as well as paper, cardboard and garden waste.

The scheme, which introduces a fourth, green bin, could see Fife’s overall recycling rate reach 56% and save the council up to £1.6m in landfill tax and penalties. A survey found that 90% of Markinch residents were satisfied or very satisfied with the scheme.

Chris Ewing, the council's Environmental Sustainability Manager, said: “This will really help in the push towards a zero waste Fife. The new bins and collections will be introduced in phases and we’ll give plenty of support and advice to help people make the change.

“Residents have told us again and again that they want to recycle plastics and cans, and now there will be a new bin for this which will be picked up monthly. Large bins will also be used for paper and cardboard and the food and garden waste, so we’ll only need a small bin for other rubbish that can’t be recycled.

“To avoid spending unnecessary money on new bins, we’ll start using the smaller blue bins for landfill waste, which means we have to swap paper and cardboard to the grey bins. But we’ll put labels on them to help remind people until they’ve got into the habit of it.”

The new bin line-up: Green bins (240 litre) will be provided to recycle plastics and cans of all types, from ready meal trays, to margarine tubs to cans, tins and metal trays. These will be collected every four weeks.

1. Grey bins (240 litre) will be changed to recycle paper and cardboard. These will also be collected every four weeks.

2. Blue bins (140 litre) will collect landfill waste - rubbish that cannot be recycled. This will still be collected every two weeks.

3. Brown bins (240 litre) will be for both food waste and garden waste. A brown kitchen caddy will also be provided to make it easy to gather food waste. These will be collected every two weeks.

The three different trials started last August/September in Leuchars, Strathkinnes and Guardbridge, Markinch, Culross and Torryburn. They involved different combinations of bins and containers and people’s recycling habits were closely monitored to assess which option was most effective and user-friendly.

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