Ian Yuill

Liberal Democrat councillor for Mannofield, Airyhall, Braeside, Broomhill, Garthdee, Kaimhill and Ruthrieston Learn more

Mixed recycling, food and garden waste collections to restart

by Ian Yuill on 3 April, 2020

I am pleased that Aberdeen City Council has announced it will restart collecting mixed recycling, food waste and garden waste from wheelie bins from Monday 6th April. This will though be on a reduced frequency.

These wheelie bin collections were temporarily suspended last week to stick to social distancing rules.

The new temporary service will see mixed recycling bins and brown bins collected once every four weeks rather than the normal collection once every fortnight. This is only possible because staff from other council services have volunteered to help with waste and recycling collections.

Black general waste wheelie bins will continue to be emptied once a fortnight.

Whilst four-weekly collections of mixed recycling, food and garden waste will present a challenge for some families, it is certainly a vast improvement on no service at all.

A calendar showing which collections are on which days can be found here.

Collections from bulk bins continue to be made, although these may be less frequent than normal.

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   4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. Trevor Simmonds says:

    Where do we get the food waste bags for the brown bins?

    • Ian Yuill says:

      As it happens, I asked council staff about this a few days ago. The reply I received was:

      “As you are aware, caddy liner distribution points are now temporarily closed in response to the latest government advice on coronavirus. The Council is currently not providing caddy liners.

      “As an alternative to caddy liners we advise:

      · Use an ice cream tub or other container to collect food waste and then tip it directly into your communal food waste bin or brown bin.

      · Wrap food scraps in newspaper or paper towels and put directly into your communal food waste bin or brown bin.

      · Uncooked food such as fruit and vegetable peelings can be home composted Some food waste can be composted at home and we encourage residents to do this.”

      It is of course also possible to buy food caddy liners from supermarkets, which is what I have done myself.

  2. Alistair Simpson says:

    When are normal waste collections going to restart?
    Aberdeenshire council seems to have been able to maintain a normal service throughout the crisis. Yet, in Aberdeen city we pay our garden tax, and the advice is to compost our garden waste.

    • Ian Yuill says:

      Council managers initially completely suspended the mixed recycling and food/garden waste collections because the government’s instructions about social distancing made normal operations impossible.

      The normal crew size for bin collection lorries is one driver plus either two, or sometimes, three loaders. It is impossible for that many people to use the cab of a bin lorry whilst maintaining two metres of separation. As a result, council managers took the decision to reduce the crew size to a driver plus one loader – which of course substantially slows down the speed of emptying bins. On some collection routes a second loader is now following the bin lorry in a separate vehicle so that s/he can also assist in emptying bins whilst maintaining social distancing. Unfortunately this method of working is also slower than the normal practice.

      It was possible to restart brown and mixed recycling bin collections only because staff from other council services, and some Sita staff who normally work at the household waste and recycling centres, volunteered to assist with refuse and recycling collections. The slower speed of collections resulting from the social distancing requirements means it is though only possible to carry out mixed recycling and brown bin collections once every four weeks.

      Whilst council managers continue to review working practices, it seems unlikely that more frequent brown and mixed recycling collections will be possible until the social distancing rules are relaxed.

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