Glasgow City Council will remove 2,500 food waste bins from flats and tenements in a trial across the city after finding 30% were frequently contaminated.
A new approach to collecting food waste from flats and tenements is to be tested in the north-west of Glasgow, the council says, which will see 4,500 grey bins retained at addresses with a ‘good record of food recycling’, and 2,500 removed.
In February this year the council agreed to a review of food waste recycling for flats and tenements after a number of concerns were raised about the effectiveness of the service.
Recent figures show that around 2,000 tonnes of food waste was collected from flatted properties in Glasgow and sent for reprocessing each year. When the service was launched in 2016, around 50,000 tonnes of food waste was being sent to landfill annually.
A contaminated food waste bin also has to be processed as general waste, which incurs a significant additional cost for the council and prevents tax payers from receiving best value for money
The service was suspended across the whole of the city over the course of the Covid-19 emergency with residents asked to use their general waste bin for food waste.
During the recent review of the service, it was found that 30% of food waste bins were frequently contaminated with other kinds of waste, such as household residual waste, which prevents any food waste that has been collected from going forward for reprocessing, the council says.
“In these circumstances, a separate collection for the bin has to be arranged, which leads to delays in the waste being removed and also to complaints from residents,” the council said in a statement.
“A contaminated food waste bin also has to be processed as general waste, which incurs a significant additional cost for the council and prevents tax payers from receiving best value for money.
“Cleansing crews facing safety issues while accessing a number of backcourts was also identified during the review.”
Residents that have had their food waste bins removed but still wish to recycle their food waste will be able to access an ‘enhanced network’ of public food waste bins at 200 sites across the north west of the city, the council says.
Disappointing uptake
A spokesman for the council said: “There has been a disappointing uptake of the food waste service for flatted properties since its introduction in 2016.
“Very low levels of food waste are eventually recycled and bins are frequently spoiled with other kinds of waste, which then makes it significantly more expensive to process.
There has been a disappointing uptake of the food waste service for flatted properties since its introduction in 2016
“Resolving issues with contaminated food bins takes up significant time and resources and impacts upon the effectiveness of the wider cleansing service.
“By providing publicly-sited bins for addresses where there have been significant on-going problems, we are aiming to minimise the issue of contamination and ensure as much food waste can be reprocessed as possible.
“Improved recycling rates for food waste will be good for the environment and good value for the council tax payer. We are also hopeful that removing those bins leads to improvements in backcourt areas.”
The trial of the new arrangements is expected to last for eight weeks and results from the test period will help to shape the delivery of the service across the whole of the city in due course.
