An awareness campaign to reduce waste and increase recycling across the Falkirk Council area is kicking off this week as Falkirk Council takes forward the next stage of the household green bin collection change.
Following on from a successful pilot scheme trailed over the last four months, a further 22,000 properties will start to receive information for the next stage of the roll out that focuses on properties in:
- Banknock
- Bo’ness
- Bonnybridge
- Denny
- Lionthorn area
- Communities of the Upper Braes area
Letters explaining the changes to the affected households will go out from Monday 22 September to be followed with an information pack explain the changes to their service.
During the first phase of the scheme, the average amount of waste discarded by households in the original test areas reduced by two kilogrammes per week and saw an increase in food waste collected by 29% as well as a 6% increase in the amount of ‘dry’ material collected.
If this result was replicated across the Falkirk Council area, 9000 tonnes of landfill material would be diverted to recycling representing a potential saving of £385k a year.
Councillor Dr Craig Martin, spokesperson for the Environment said: “The affected households should look out for a letter this week that will give them the basic information and these will be followed up with a far more detailed information pack shortly afterwards.
“The first stage of the project was extremely well received by our communities who were taking part and we’re confident that this will be replicated again as we roll out stage two.
“Our goal is to meet and exceed national targets wherever possible and at the same time reduce the costs of sending material to landfill – estimates from the first stage of the project suggest this could be in the region of £365,000 annually.
“We’re keen to encourage everyone to get behind this as we all work together towards our 2020 target of seeing 60% of our waste material recycled.”
A series of road shows have been planned for across the local area where advisers will be on hand to give advice on what households can expect.
A final roll out is expected in March 2015 to a further 25,000 properties.
You can find out more here.