The grant will be used by the council for various recycling and sustainable waste schemes between 2004 and 2020.
Announcing the grant, Scottish environment minister Ross Finnie said: “By providing substantial long-term funding we are help East Lothian council meet their targets for waste minimisation, recycling and reduction in landfill.”
East Lothian's current recycling rate is 13% and the funding is intended to help deliver a 27% recycling rate by 2005/06. The council currently provides a blue bag kerbside collection for paper to 35,000 of its 90,000 households as well as limited garden waste collections.
A spokeswoman for the council told letsrecycle.com: “What the money will mean to East Lothian is that it will extend pilot projects that are currently being run in the area.”
She explained that while some of the grant would be used to expand the existing kerbside collections, the council also plans to invest in a new civic amenity site in Dunbar, covering the east of the region.
More materials will also be collected at existing CA sites in west and central East Lothian including textiles, cooking and engine oil, scrap metal, household and car batteries, gas canisters and garden waste as well as glass, cans and paper.
“We are a small local authority. Here we have got just over 90,000 people and a very rural population, so garden waste is very important,” the spokeswoman said. “But with our smaller communities by farms it is difficult to provide kerbside collection so we are trying to set up these bigger centres and try to get people to use them.”
The council's long term plans are not definite, she added, and recycling services will be introduced and expanded when supported by the right market conditions.
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