New bins to generate cash

On June 4, I viewed the proposals from South Ayrshire Council on the rollout of the two new additional recycling bins to households.

At present the populus of South Ayrshire put all the recyclables into their blue kerbside bin, that is to change with the introduction of a grey bin for just paper and card ,and a black one for glass only ,so it does raise the question why three bins instead of one

The answer is money but before your readers get excited, no I don’t think a reduction in council tax is on the cards.

It’s another income generation scheme for the council who can sell the paper and glass as admitted in the council press pages ,which is fine if it is put back into enhancing the service.

However, as an income generation stream it is subject to volatile market conditions, so what happens if the market it flooded with both paper and glass the price drops, and you’re left with either sitting on it till market conditions change or you give it away for free.

The glass can go for as little as £12 per tonne with paper going for as little as £3 per tonne but the markets are extremely volatile.

However, there are changes your readers will see on their doorsteps as highlighted in the same press release the grey bin for paper and card will be collected every six weeks as will the black bin for glass, however the trade off for making the council cash will be the present blue bin will be collected every four weeks ,the green bin every three weeks and the brown garden waste bin every four weeks and the grey food caddy will go from a weekly collection to a fortnightly .

This is the trade off for the public to provide the council with an income stream.

Now as a cautionary note your readers will remember South Ayrshire proposed charging £30 per year to uplift their brown bins as councils are only legally obliged to uplift household refuse at some point down the these new changes could be chargeable if the council so choose.

Ian Stewart,

83 Thornyflat Road, Ayr