More education is needed on recycling issue

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the East Kilbride News. There is a bins war brewing. South Lanarkshire Council are taking the gloves off when it comes to recycling.

They spent £91,000 in just three months sending rubbish to landfill which could have been recycled had it not been contaminated.

Now the plan is to ‘red tag’ bins meaning they will remain unemptied until their next time on the cycle which will be four weeks later.

During that period, the onus will be placed on the householder to remove the offending times before wheeling the bin back out again for collection.

If social media is a flavour of people’s views, this decision by councillors will go down like a hot chip.

How many residents have time to be raking through bins to find what shouldn’t be there?

Now – there will be some of you saying get it right in the first place. That’s fair comment.

But have you been standing in your kitchen with an item wondering what bin it should go in? I have.

And then there are times when you just don’t know where something should go. It’s all very well saying information is on the council website but not everyone is online and, in any case, a handy guide to keep in a drawer or on the fridge would be even better.

The council should launch a fresh information campaign to keep residents right and ease off on the red tags.

What will happen is people will just throw stuff into their refuse bin if there is any doubt in their mind at all.

Folk don’t mind doing their bit but with busy working and family lives, a recycling test once a fortnight is something we can all do without. Colin Paterson