At a meeting of the environment and infrastructure committee on Tuesday, councillors voted to approve the council's Strategic Waste Fund Implementation Plan. It will include segregated kerbside collections for 80,000 households and communal street bin recycling for a further 22,000 households. Green waste collections will also be provided for 60,000 households under the plan.
Aberdeen is aiming to reducing the amount of household waste generated by 1%, reducing the amount going to landfill by 40% and hitting recycling and composting rates of at least 25% by 2005. Household waste recycling rates are currently about 4%, with a further 7% through composting.
Commenting on the plan, Councillor Ian Yull, convenor of the environment and infrastructure committee, said: “Aberdeen city council aims to meet the challenging targets of our 20-year integrated sustainable waste management plan. The new measures will result in a rapid increase in the city's recycling rate and, in the long term, will change the face of waste management in Aberdeen.”
Fortnightly kerbside box collections will pick up paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, cans and three colours of glass, with an initial 20,000 households in the north of the city beginning collections in 2003-04. The full 80,000 households will be expected to be on the scheme by 2006-07. Green waste collections will go out to 60,000 households by 2007-08.
Council officers have recommended purchasing 20,000 55-litre kerbside boxes from Droitwich-based Egbert H Taylor & Co at a cost of 46,000, and 20,000 34-litre re-usable bags from Bristol-based JPK Trade Supplies Ltd at a cost of 18,400. The contract for the remainder of the kerbside containers will go to tender.
The council will also be tendering a contract for 60,000 brown wheeled bins for green waste, at an estimated cost of 90,000. Refurbishment of bring bank sites will require 90 new metal recycling containers at a cost of about 67,500.
New vehicles will be required for the recycling plan, which the council has said will be leased in the short term followed by a procurement for the long-term. Council officers have said that tenders will be drawn up for the procurement of on-board weighing and identification equipment, installation of a new IT system and the installation of microchips on recycling containers and bins.
Aberdeen is also to provide about 17,000 home composting units for residents with 275,000 additional funding from the New Opportunities Fund Transforming Waste programme. The home composting project will be run with the Recycling Advisory Group Scotland and Aberdeen Forward, and will see two project officers appointed to work with 100 “master composter” volunteers. Council officers see home composting as an important measure to reduce the generation of household waste.
The city's recycling plan fits into a joint waste management strategy along with neighbouring Moray Council and Aberdeenshire council (see letsrecycle.com story). As well as recycling and composting, energy from waste will play an important part in the waste partnership, with SITA UK is currently seeking planning permission for a 160,000 tonne incinerator at Altens, Aberdeen.
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