The authority began rolling out the AWC service earlier this month (April 12), and by May 17 it expects all the 72,000 households – 65% of its total – who currently use wheeled bins and a kerbside recycling service to be covered by the new arrangements.
From May 17, residents' black wheeled bins used for residual waste will be collected fortnightly, instead of weekly, as is currently the case, and their recycling boxes and bags will be collected during the alternate week, by the council's in-house collection team.
The black box is used for the collection of glass, food and drinks cans and plastic bottles, while a reusable white sack is used to collect paper and cardboard. Residents also receive a food and garden waste service using brown bins, which will continue to be collected fortnightly.
Savings
The council, which is a unitary authority and disposes of its waste via a contract with SITA UK, said that by making savings from moving to AWC, it planned to improve the recycling service available to tenements, or flats, in the city.
While it does not expect to make savings on its actual collection service, a spokeswoman for the council explained that it would “save money on disposal and landfill tax costs and generate income from recyclates.
In 2008/09, Aberdeen landfilled 101,136 tonnes, or 76.5%, of its 132,078 tonnes of municipal waste arisings.
Peter Leonard, housing and environment director at Aberdeen, said: “By being able to make some savings as a result of the move to alternate weekly collections, we can refocus our efforts to those tenemental areas that don't have much of a recycling service at the moment.”
The spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com that this would involve introducing on-street recycling bins and, where possible, the black recycling bins.
Trial
The city-wide introduction of the service comes after a trial which was run in Dyce over the past two years, and which the spokeswoman described as a “great success” after it increased the area's recycling rate by more than 9%.
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