Recycling rates up and complaints are down

Thumbs up for four-weekly waste collections

Landfill waste will be collected from thousands of Fife homes once every four weeks unless there is massively negative feedback from a public survey, it emerged yesterday.

Councillors were told that the trial had seen a significant increase in recycling rates and a cut in the amount of rubbish being buried underground.

Representatives were told yesterday two trials in the Glenrothes area – one which has seen the UK’s first ever fourweekly collection of landfill waste – had generated no official complaints from residents.

The update was given at the halfway point in the nine-month trial but its apparent success means that unless compelling reasons not to emerge from a planned public survey in the summer, changes to bin collections in Fife are inevitable.

Councillor Ross Vettraino said: “The impression I have been given is that the trial is going very well and is having the desired effect.

“This is probably the most complicated change in service that Fife Council has ever undertaken. I cannot compliment the staff enough for their work.”

Around 4,000 households are taking part.

Thornton and Stenton residents have their blue landfill bins collected every four weeks instead of every fortnight, while the green bins for recycling plastics and cans are collected every fortnight instead of every four weeks.

In Markinch and Coaltown of Balgonie, blue and green bins are emptied every three weeks.

Households taking part in the trial will be surveyed upon its completion in June in a bid to accurately gauge the public response.

Picture: Kris Miller. Keen recycler Karen Stewart-Russell puts some plastics into her green bin.