Stirling Council area homes to receive waste awareness guide

Oct 2 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

TO HELP residents get a better picture of what they can do to save money and improve the environment, Waste Aware Scotland is issuing a detailed guide to every Stirling Council household as part of a national awareness campaign.

Launched by Richard Lochhead, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, and funded by the Scottish Government as part of their commitment to a Greener Scotland, the guide explains how to obtain a subsidised home compost bin, how to reduce food waste and how to recycle food waste via the weekly collection, which is currently being introduced in the Stirling Council area.

Almost one-third of the average household wheelie bin consists of food waste, and most of that is still going directly for disposal in landfill. Once buried in the ground, it slowly rots, producing methane and other harmful greenhouse gasses that constitute one of the largest man made contributions to climate change.

Speaking at the national campaign launch in Stirling, Dr Nicki Souter, campaign manager for Waste Aware Scotland, said “Stirling Council is doing an excellent job of providing opportunities for people to recycle and compost, as shown by their 45.9% recycling rate for 2008/9, but we all have to do more.”

Stirling Council are currently engaged in a programme of rolling out food waste collection starter kits to all households who put out recycling boxes on their collecting day. The kits consist of a small grey kitchen caddy, 20 compostable bags and a leaflet explaining how to recycle food waste in five easy steps.

Food waste (including meat, bones, fish, bread and plate scrapings) can be put in to the caddy and then the caddy is put inside the kerbside recycling box and presented every week as usual with the other recyclables. Caddies are emptied into a specially designed, covered container on the back of the vehicle and the food waste is processed to produce compost.

Stirling Council’s portfolio holder for environment, Councillor Jim Thomson said: “We continue to move towards a zero waste Scotland and the Scottish Government’s Waste Aware Scotland campaign will increase public awareness and help us meet our next local target of 50% recycling and composting by 2010.”

To find out more details about Waste Aware Scotland’s campaign, go to the website at www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk. For more information on whether food waste collections are available in your area, go to Stirling Council’s Waste Services website at www.stirling.gov.uk/index/services/waste.htm and click on Food Waste Collections link, using the post code search option.