City gets taste of food waste plan

MORE recycling bins are set to be handed out to households across the Capital after plans were unveiled to begin collecting food waste alongside other household rubbish.

The city council said two new bins would be provided to thousands of residents to allow them to recycle food scraps and plastic bottles.

The move is a bid by the council to cut its landfill tax bill, which is set to rise to 12 million a year by 2014, and comes after the Scottish Government introduced tough new targets that will see a ban on binning biodegradable waste by 2017.

Plastic bottles and food waste are currently said to make up the majority of rubbish left in bins in Edinburgh after recycling facilities have been used for other materials. Plastic bottles will be collected as part of the kerbside recycling scheme from early next year, while a food collection pilot will be introduced to 20,000 homes in the city centre and east of the city.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said: "Residents will see a difference in the level of service offered, with more collections. Food waste will be collected weekly and there will be more opportunity to recycle other household items."

Lockable collection boxes are to be provided to help recycle some of the estimated 20,000 tonnes of food waste that is sent to landfill each year in Edinburgh.

It is expected the pilot will eventually be rolled out to include the rest of the city's 250,000 households.

Iain Gulland, director of Zero Waste Scotland, said: "We welcome this step by Edinburgh to increase the range of recycling services it offers. It is now important that members of the public get behind these new services.Food waste can be recycled into products which benefit Scottish farmers and plastic packaging can be turned back into new packaging, reducing the need to use natural resources."

But Tory councillor Cameron Rose said there was "a danger" that residents would get fatigue about recycling due to the number of different boxes being put out for collection. He said: "I'm all in favour of recycling, but I'm beginning to wonder if it might be more effective to collect all the waste at the same time and have it sorted mechanically - that is something we seriously have to look at now."