Recycling bins are to be removed from the 5500 North Lanarkshire properties which still have alternate weekly collections instead of the wider range in operation across the rest of the council area.
It affects properties on 75 streets in Airdrie and Coatbridge, where householders will now have just one bin for all types of rubbish and a weekly collection when the new system begins on January 18.
The move was agreed at yesterday’s meeting of the council’s environment committee, after members were told of the increasing cost and difficulty of processing the mixed material being collected – only 60 per cent of which can currently be recycled.
Existing “blue node” communal recycling facilities for areas which cannot accommodate the full range of bins will also be removed, as they currently attract “flytipping and excess waste”, which can be replaced at residents’ request with “facilities based on three-weekly recycling”.
Committee convener Michael McPake, the Glenboig councillor, told the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser: “It’s mainly flats which are affected, and there are also some houses like terraces which just don’t accommodate the four bins.
“It’s proving more and more difficult to get recycling coming out of the mixed system – a lot of the material isn’t permissible and it’s costing money to get it taken away.
“This will have a cost saving for the council and there will be no reduction in staff as they’ll be redeployed to other areas where there’s new housing; the area is growing all the time.
“Recycling is really important and we’re working to increase the percentage all the time. We try our best to accommodate everyone and if there are people in these properties who still want to try and recycle, we want to encourage that and will provide the communal facilities where we can.”
Affected properties have just two bins – compared to North Lanarkshire’s standard four – with mixed recycling including paper, cardboard, plastic and metal all going into one and residual waste into the other.
That system was in operation across the council area until 2017, when the majority of householders switched to a three-weekly system in which waste, paper and other recycling are separately collected in turn, while food and garden waste are uplifted every two weeks.
Councillors were told: “The primary reason for properties receiving alternate weekly collections is due to their not being able to accommodate the full four-bin system, and on some occasions it has been introduced to areas where engagement with recycling has been very poor.
“It also includes the ‘blue node’ system which provides a communal recycling facility within areas where households are unable to be provided with dedicated recycling bins.
“The level of contamination in the blue recycling bins is very high which makes the quality of the recyclate very poor; the recycling nodes face similar problems with many of these facilities attracting flytipping and simply being used as excess waste capacity.”
A report for councillors noted that the cost of processing mixed recycling is almost identical to that of residual waste, and that the alternate weekly collection service – which accounts for just one per cent of all recycling material collected across North Lanarkshire – costs £240,000 per year.
It added: “There are currently only two processors in the west of Scotland who now accept such a mix of recyclate, making the long-term stability and viability of this collection scheme extremely poor; the concern is that we may very quickly have no outlet for the material.”
Six staff members will be redeployed to other areas of the waste service when the change takes effect in two months’ time, with the combined residual waste being “passed for energy production, ensuring that all waste is diverted from landfill”.
