Aberdeen tackles plastic bag waste at recycling centres

The council has led a call from a number of Scottish councils to introduce a levy on plastic carrier bags used by the public in retail outlets (see letsrecycle.com story).

Clare Neely, Aberdeen city council waste minimization officer, told letsrecycle.com that plastic bags were creating a litter problem at the sites. She said: “What we are tending to have a problem with is not that people are putting them in the banks and causing contamination but they are leaving them at the sites.”

The council has provided litter bins but residents seem to assume that the plastic bags are going to be recycled as well, Ms Neely added, so the council is looking to minimise this waste.

Now the council has sent out its Community Waste Team to encourage residents to stop using plastic bags at recycling points. The team has used the Waste Aware Multimedia Vehicle at a number of supermarkets to hand out free re-useable bags for resident to use to take their recyclables to recycling.

Collections

In another scheme to divert more waste from landfill, the city council is also rolling out its garden waste recycling scheme.

Brown wheeled bins are being delivered to households in Mannofield, Seafield, Rubislaw, Mastrick, King's Gate, Summerhill, Angusfield, Woodend, Sheddocksley and Northfield along with a calendar of collection dates.

When the fortnightly collections begin next month the scheme will cover a total of 35,000 households and the material will be taken for composting by a local company and used as a soil improver on arable land.

This expansion is part of Aberdeen council's plan to cover 80% of the city with its garden waste and kerbside recycling collections within three to four year years. Another 2,000 properties will be added to the garden waste scheme in March 2005 and two phases of 20,000 properties being added to the kerbside collections in November 2004 and July 2004. The remaining 20% of the city is flats and tenements and the council plans to offer communal recycling facilities to these properties.

Linda Jordinson, waste marketing officer, said: “Recycling is up by 34% in the Grampian region as a whole, so the city can be proud of its efforts so far, we can't rest yet, as there is still a long way to go if we are going to change our behaviour and make recycling second nature.”