Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Overloaded bin trial postponed by council
A trial which would have seen overloaded North Lanarkshire bins not being emptied has been postponed – as the authority instead takes part in a separate electronic tagging initiative to monitor recycling.
Councillors had given the go-ahead in February for a three-month pilot project to address the problem of bins being too full to be collected safely; first by offering recycling help or additional capacity, and then by not collecting rubbish in cases of repeat incidences.
However, it was originally delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has now been put back further as North Lanarkshire pursues a new partnership with Zero Waste Scotland to place radio frequency ID devices on the bins of 5000 households to track and improve recycling levels.
Environment convener Michael Mcpake told the Advertiser of the overloaded bins plan: “That went on hold because of Covid, for the simple reason that a lot more people were using their bins more [during lockdown and with recycling centres closed].
“We didn’t want to put any more pressure on people, so that went on hold; and now we have the smart tags trial with 5000 homes across the authority.
“It will give us data, and the hope is that we can get to a recycling target of 60 per cent; we’re stuck at recycling levels of around 46-48 per cent and would love to get higher than that.”
He added of the original plan – where bins presented with “lids in near-vertical positions” would have been tagged and ultimately not emptied “will start again at another time.”
February’s report on tackling “properties who continually present overloaded residual bins”, for non-recyclable waste which cannot be placed into the paper, food and garden, or glass, metal and plastic containers, had noted: “Bins in such a condition are not capable of being collected safely and bags have to be removed before being emptied.
“It is highly likely that residents [in these cases] are not recycling to the extent that they should be; moving recyclable materials into one of the three [other] bins will increase recycling levels and reduce overall disposal costs.”
Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn representative Councillor Mcpake had said then: “Bins which are overloaded can be dangerous for operators; and it’s to try and educate that bit further on recycling.”
It was supported by the Labour and SNP members of the environment committee, but Conservative members expressed concern that it could “increase litter and fly-tipping”.
A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council confirmed of the overloaded bins project: “The trial was delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Since then, the council has agreed to work with Zero Waste Scotland on a project using smart technologies to measure how much waste households recycle and dispose of.
“To avoid running two trials at the same time, the overloaded bins project is on hold.”