Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Scotland becomes first council in the country to collect rubbish once every four weeks

Angry residents of the Glenrothes area of Fife complain that they were being punished for the sins of the supermarkets

Andy McSmith
Wednesday 23 September 2015 16:33 EDT
Comments
File photo
File photo (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A new frontline in the battle of the bin collections opened this week as a council in Scotland became the first in the country to start collecting household rubbish only once every four weeks.

Angry residents of the Glenrothes area of Fife complained, however, that they were being punished for the sins of the supermarkets after being told that collectors will be round only once a month to empty the blue bins into which they put general household rubbish – in a bid to encourage recycling. The green bins, for plastic and cans, and brown bins, for food and garden waste, will be emptied once every two weeks.

The issue of how often rubbish should be collected has inflamed residents across the UK ever since Tony Blair’s Labour government abolished a law dating back to Victorian times that obliged councils to empty bins every week. Many authorities moved to fortnightly collections, but in 2012 Community Secretary Eric Pickles bowed to pressure and promised to make weekly collections a “fundamental right”. He set aside £250m for councils who wanted to reintroduce them, but only - Stoke-on-Trent - took up the offer.

In May, Sir Eric lost his job, and the Government appears to have accepted that in parts of the country rubbish will never again be collected weekly.

Fife Council is running two experiments in tandem; in one, general waste is collected monthly for around 2,000 homes. In the other, also affecting about 2,000 homes, it will be collected every three weeks.

But Peter Scobie, chairman of the community council for the Stenton area of Glenrothes, said that council officials were “shot down in flames” when they presented the plan at a community meeting last month, because of the problems residents are already having getting their bins emptied.

“We’ve got no choice of what we buy now,” he said. “The supermarkets are dominant. We can’t buy loose fruit or loose containers. Fife council say they have got the Scottish Government on their backs, and the Scottish government are saying it’s the EU – but nobody is trying to say to the shops, ‘Let’s get rid of the plastic bags’.”

Ken Gourley, head of environment at Fife Council, said: “This is a pilot to get more information so that we can meet the needs of local people, develop a cleaner, greener Fife as well as reduce our waste disposal costs. If we fail to increase recycling rates in Fife, then we are throwing money away.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in