The funding, from the Strategic Waste Fund, will allow the council to expand its existing kerbside recycling service to provide paper and green waste collections for 140,000 households. It should also see the council's civic amenity sites upgraded into recycling centres.
Fife council is also proposing to launch a “comprehensive” education and awareness programme to raise awareness of recycling among householders, as well adding 250 new recycling bring bank sites.
Announcing the award, Scotland's environment minister, Ross Finnie, said: “This funding will help ensure many of the citizens in Fife will have access to recycling facilities. By providing this substantial long-term funding we are helping Fife Council meet their targets for waste minimisation, recycling and reduction in landfill. We are determined to provide Scots with much more sustainable ways of managing their waste.”
Under its waste plan, Fife is expected to reach a recycling and composting rate of 28% of all household waste by 2006. In 2002/03 the council recycled just 5.2% of its household waste.
Most households in Fife are already provided with recycling collection services for paper, and over the summer, Fife council provided about 18,000 brown wheeled bins for householders to deposit their garden waste. These are collected every two weeks except from December to February, when they are collected monthly. The Strategic Waste Fund grant should allow Fife to provide green waste recycling collections for about half of households in the area by next year.
Welcoming the funding, Fife council leader Anne McGovern said the council would be able to commit an extra 3.9 million a year to improving Fife's recycling record.
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