New refuse and recycling collections coming to Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey

Following on from the recent introduction of new refuse and recycling collections in Caithness, Lochaber and Skye and Lochalsh, residents of Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey will shortly receive notification of changes to their collections from 4 July.

Households currently with recycling boxes for paper and tin cans will be given blue wheeled recycling bins which will also take cardboard and plastic bottles. These will be collected fortnightly, alternating with a fortnightly collection of general waste from green or black bins. The fortnightly garden waste collections will remain as at present (though collection days may change).

Residents who have  blue wheeled recycling bin collections will see their current four-weekly collections of these bins increased to fortnightly, again alternating with a fortnightly collection of general waste.

During the latter part of May and throughout June new calendars and guides will be delivered to households, explaining the new service, and residents of blue box areas will be delivered blue wheeled bins in preparation for the start of the service on 4 July.

The programme of introducing recycling collections to all The Highland Council’s commercial customers will, at the same time, be extended to businesses in Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. Full details of the new commercial service will shortly be sent out and the Council’s Waste Management Team will be individually contacting commercial customers to discuss their service requirements.

Councillor John Laing, Chairman of The Highland Council’s TEC Service Committee said that the extension of the new service to Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey was an important part of the programme to increase recycling throughout the Highland Council area. He added: “In areas where the new collections have already been introduced the opportunity to recycle more from home and businesses has been generally welcomed. During the six month trial in my own home area of Skye and Lochalsh the amount of recyclable material collected from kerbside collections increased by 40%. There was also a decrease in refuse collected for disposal of 300 tonnes. When you consider that landfill tax alone, excluding other disposal charges, now stands at £56 a tonne this adds up to considerable savings to Council Tax payers.”

Currently the average recycling rate in The Highland Council area is 34% which is a massive improvement on the 2002 level of less than 5% but the Council is working towards increasing this to 40%. The Scottish Government has set a target of 70% of all waste to be recycled by 2025. Alternate Weekly Collections are now common in Scotland and have already been adopted by 21 out of 32 Councils.

Concerns about smells from rotting organic matter can be allayed by sensible bin management and ensuring that such material is double bagged separately from the ‘clean’, ‘non- smelly’ non-recyclable waste rather than throwing everything in the bin together.

Householders are also encouraged to try to minimise the amount of organic matter placed in the residual waste bin by reducing food waste and by composting items such as raw fruit and vegetables, flowers and garden waste. Households in Scotland throw away an average of £430 worth of food every year (visit http://www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk/).

For more information on waste and recycling see the Council’s website at: http://www.highland.gov.uk/recycle.htm; e-mail: recycle@highland.gov.uk or call 01349 886603.