Recycling up, landfill waste down in Fife's bin collection trial areas

As well as monitoring levels of waste, Fife Council is also seeking the views of householders involved in the trials.

Councillors will be updated on the recycling bin collection trials taking place in Markinch and Coaltown of Balgonie, and Thornton and Stenton, at the Glenrothes Area Committee on Wednesday, June 8.

Launched at the end of September 2015, the trials involve 4000 households.

In both trials recycling bins are emptied more often and landfill bins less often in an effort to boost recycling rates and reduce landfill costs.

Although conclusive figures are not available yet, the council says results to date show that landfill has reduced on both trials, and that the amounts of both plastic and cans and paper and cardboard collected has increased.

A survey of households in the trial areas is currently underway. People can either complete the survey online, or face-to-face with a recycling adviser on their doorstep.

People involved in the trial are being encouraged to visit the bin trial survey page to take part, or to look out for surveyors.

Fife Council is looking for 400 completed surveys, and over two-thirds of these have been undertaken to date.

The results will be analysed and reported back to the council’s executive committee, alongside the other monitoring taking place in the trial areas.

Councillor John Wincott, Fife Council’s sustainability champion, has thanked residents taking part in the bin collection trials for supporting the drive to boost recycling rates.

He said: “I know that change like this means people have to work with us for it to succeed, and we have found the vast majority of people have done this.

“We have found that landfill waste collected has gone down, and recycling up. Contamination levels and the numbers of blue bins with raised lids both remain low thanks to the commitment of local people.

“The pilots are designed to help us get more information so that we can meet the needs of local people, and develop a cleaner, greener Fife, as well as reduce our landfill tax costs.

“We are closely monitoring customer opinion of the trials to find out what is working for local people, which is why we’d like as many people as possible within the trial areas to take part in our survey.”

The trials have now been underway for seven months, and will continue to run for at least 12 months.

All the monitoring currently being carried out will continue over the coming months, including the amounts of recycling and landfill waste, recycling point and recycling centre usage, and analysis of service requests.

A newsletter with information on the survey was delivered to all trial households in late March.

There have been five formal complaints made to the council about the current bin trials from within the trial areas since the pilot started.