Highland Council bin uplifts could be cut to every three weeks
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CUTTING rubbish bin collections to once every three weeks could improve recycling efforts, according to a senior Highland Council officer.
A new study reveals on average householders in Highland are throwing almost half of all recyclable material into the green general refuse bin.
Dr Colin Clark, the local authority’s head of environmental services, believes there is capacity in the blue bins to allow residents to cope with three-weekly collections.
He said: "People in Highland are really quite good at recycling but we estimate that we only get about 65 per cent of all the materials that they have. The rest is going in the green bin. There is a big waste element there."
Rubbish bins are currently collected once a fortnight in Highland and families of six or more are allocated two bins.
The controversial move to stretch the collections to once every three weeks comes from a council budget consultation exercise in which residents are asked to give their views on which services could be cut to save money,
The local authority must save £63 million from its annual £563 million between 2015 and 2019.
At the same time, recycling rates must rise between now and 2020 to meet Scottish Government targets.
Budget consultation leader Maxine Smith said the idea of reducing collections was proving unpopular and a number of councillors have spoken out against it.
No decision will be made until the consultation process ends in November.
Dr Clark said some household bins would undoubtedly feel the strain if rubbish was not collected once a fortnight, but he believes the negatives could be outweighed.
The recycling rate was detected by a recent council study involving 250 households.
Waste was taken from 50 homes from five sample areas around Inverness.
