The council received 31.3 million from the Scottish Executive's 230 million Strategic Waste Fund in February 2003 (see letsrecycle.com story) and has used some of the money to improve its glass collection service using bring banks.
The council had employed the community group Alloa Community Enterprises (ACE) to carry out glass collections from bring banks for 12 years for around 28,000 a year. But in April 2003 the council awarded a new contract to the Dalkeith-based company MacGlass.
ACE has now accused the council of attempting to “call time on local community recycling” by introducing new bottle banks and employing an alternative contractor to service them. ACE called the council a “bully”, and “challenged the legality of the tender process and the criteria for its evaluation”.
Tony Cassidy, ACE general manager, said: “It looks like the council has not consulted with anyone on this. They have simply come along and dropped their banks down and pushed ours out of the way. This is crazy. We're all meant to be working together to improve recycling, not competing. The council are spending thousands on replacing our service when they should be spending the money trying to get more people to recycle.”
Efficient
But in response to the allegations, Stirling said that the reason new bins were being placed in the bring bank sites was that they were bigger bins – 3,000 litre bins, compared to ACE's 1,100 litre bins. This was to make the transportation of recyclables from the bring bank sites more efficient and sustainable as well as tackling the problem of full bins, which were a “big public frustration” according to the council.
A spokesman for the council said: “With funding from the Scottish Executive, Stirling council intends to redevelop these recycling sites to improve them aesthetically and increase their capacity with new 3,000 litre bins. This will allow a more sustainable transportation method to be deployed -at present a vehicle can be running all the way from Alloa to Tyndrum to empty a few 1,100 litre bins.”
Pressure
The spokesman explained that during the 1990s the level of service it received was “reasonably acceptable” as there were no statutory targets and recycling “was not seen to be a council ‘core function’”. However, he said that since new legislative pressure had been imposed, “We need to focus more clearly on what is best for the public service in line with European Union Directives.”
The council held a tender process involving four different contractors. The spokesman explained that ACE had quoted a cost per tonne of 26.99 compared to the MacGlass quote of 5.50 per tonne.
He said: “MacGlass gave excellent references from local authorities, including Dundee City Council and West Lothian Council. Therefore in April 2003 Stirling Council appointed MacGlass to undertake the duties for a 2 year contract to be extended each year, if acceptable to both parties. They will start servicing the sites late this summer. The saving to Stirling Council in terms of revenue is about 20,000 per year. This money can be invested into servicing the recycling sites regularly to make them better public facilities.”
Jobs
Stirling council said that its new collection service would create 40 new job positions, and that since MacGlass sends its glass to the Alloa Glass Works, production would not be affected.
ACE employs 20 full time, and was also collecting cans, textiles and furniture as part of its partnership with the council. The community group said its collection services in Clackmannanshire and Falkirk are unaffected by the developments at Stirling.
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