Aberdeenshire Council confirms details of Cruden Bay pilot of enhanced household recycling service

Aberdeenshire Council has confirmed that Cruden Bay will play a vital role in a pilot scheme as part of the introduction of its new 3-weekly household recycling and waste collection strategy.

The new service provides residents with more recycling capacity, while reducing non-recyclable capacity to better match the materials they throw away.

Funded by a £3.4 million investment from the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund, the new recycling and waste strategy being rolled out from Spring 2023 will assist communities to recycle as much as they can, helping to significantly increase recycling rates across the region and cut the volume of unnecessary waste going to landfill or incineration.

Despite providing kerbside services and information on how to use them, more than 60% of recyclable material is thrown away by households in Aberdeenshire.

A recent analysis found that around 66.8% of the contents of residual waste bins could have been diverted from landfill by using the existing services of kerbside recycling, household recycling centres and recycling points. Some 22.6% of the residual waste bin was food waste, with 11.5% being food still in its packaging.

The new cycle is expected to divert up to 6,000 tonnes of materials into recycling, with annual revenue savings for the council anticipated in the region of £700,000, which will be reinvested into council services.

Cruden Bay has been on a 3-weekly kerbside collection pilot using their existing bins since September 2019 and lends itself to playing an instrumental role in the latest kerbside collection roll-out.

Around 920 households are being contacted by letter with full details of the new arrangements, which will include delivery of an additional orange lidded recycling bin for mixed containers.

Our Community Waste Officers will host a drop-in session at Port Erroll Hall this Thursday, (Sept 22nd) from 12noon-7pm to outline the new collections and answer any questions residents may have.

For Cruden Bay residents ONLY, the new blue-lidded and orange-lidded bins are now being delivered and the new kerbside collections will comprise:

• Week 1 (Tuesday, October 4): Paper, card and unbagged shredded paper recycling plus food waste (using existing, blue-lidded recycling bin plus food waste caddy)
• Week 2 (Tuesday, October 11): Containers recycling plus food waste (new orange-lidded bin for food & drinks cans, cartons, plastic bottles, pots, tubs & trays, all using a new bin, plus food waste caddy)
• Week 3 (October 18): Non-recyclable waste, sometimes referred to as your landfill bin, plus food waste (using existing grey/black-lidded bin and food waste caddy)

As part of the new collection strategy, additional staff will be employed throughout the process to work alongside our collections crews who will be receiving training around the new scheme. Community Waste Officers will also continue to provide advice and guidance for any resident who may be unsure of the new operation.

There will be a widespread communications campaign in the lead up to the region-wide service changes, with media releases, social media content and information on our website. Details of the new service will also be directly mailed to every household.

Large families, those with medical needs or with babies in nappies can request additional refuse capacity, as long as they can demonstrate that they use the recycling services available to them, including the food waste caddy.

Mindful that not everybody can accommodate an extra bin, the council will be working with communities to provide suitable alternatives, such as smaller or shared bins or bag collections.  Households can contact the council to discuss specific requirements in relation to this service change once they have been notified directly of the changes coming to their area.

We would encourage residents to download the MyAberdeenshire mobile app and sign up for notifications to ensure they are kept up-to-date on any changes to their waste collection service. This will help to keep you right when the service changes go live with collection day reminders of when and what bins are due for collection and what goes in each bin type.

Moving to align the service with the Scottish Household Recycling Charter will also make the service fit for any future policy changes.  The Scottish Household Recycling Charter aims to bring consistency to local authority recycling services and the quality of the materials collected. 

Ewan Wallace, Head of Environment and Sustainability at Aberdeenshire Council, said: “The changes to the household recycling and waste collection services are being introduced to help increase the quantity and quality of recycling collected in Aberdeenshire and reduce the volume of unnecessary waste going to landfill whilst complying with the Scottish Household Recycling Charter Code of Practice.

“The new arrangements support the aims of the council’s waste strategy and have been designed to make it easier for residents to recycle as much of the materials leaving their homes as possible. My thanks go to the residents of Cruden Bay as they participate in this important pilot scheme which will allow us to monitor and review the new collection strategy prior to the start of the region-wide launch next year.”

Chair of the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, Cllr John Crawley, added: “This is a really positive step that will give Aberdeenshire residents the means to recycle much more of their household waste, in turn, helping the area play its own crucial part in reaching Scotland’s ambitious climate targets. We know that Aberdeenshire households currently send to landfill a large portion of what could be recycled, which is not only a burden on the environment, but also council spending that could be used elsewhere.”
 
Vice-chair Cllr Isobel Davidson added: “Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills is a responsibility we all must take on board, and we are therefore grateful to receive this funding support from Zero Waste Scotland which will help us help households boost their recycling contributions. Like previous changes to collections, we expect some degree of adjustment, however, we are confident residents will appreciate the need for change and experience its benefits in the future.”

Iain Gulland, Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland said: “This latest round of Recycling Improvement Fund investment from the Scottish Government signifies the continuous commitment to improving Scotland’s recycling infrastructure. Through our Charter for Household Recycling, councils have pledged to bring in consistent and comprehensive recycling services across Scotland. It’s fantastic to see support for such innovative projects that will help achieve this goal. Recycling as much as possible will help to address climate change, so we want to make this process as simple, and effective, as possible for the citizens of Scotland.”