Glass recycling to be upgraded

Mar 12 2009 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

A PILOT scheme for recycling glass has been met with such strong support from residents that South Lanarkshire Council are set to roll out new bins for the area.

Wheeled burgundy bins with a 140-litre capacity are to be distributed throughout the locality soon and will be uplifted from homes every four weeks.

The move comes after the initiative was tested in 52,000 homes in the county. As part of the pilot scheme households were given the opportunity to recycle mixed glass using a reusable canvas sack, which is currently collected every fortnight from the kerbside.

A council spokesman said: “The new bins will hold a lot more glass than the existing sacks and is a much safer method of collection.

“Householders have wholeheartedly supported the domestic kerbside recycling services which were introduced in 2003 and now these services are to be extended and improved.”

Meanwhile in the coming weeks residents in new housing developments and in rural areas throughout the county will finally receive their blue recycling bins, used for the collection of cardboard, paper and cans.

Locations are also being assessed for the installation of communal recycling facilities close to blocks of flats for residents there to contribute to recycling.

The council spokesman added: “People who live in properties such as terraced houses and tenement properties where neither blue bins nor communal recycling facilities are possible will, early in the new financial year, receive transparent refuse sacks so that they too can join in and recycle domestic waste.”

Distribution of the burgundy bins and the remaining blue bins is set to begin on Monday 16 March.

North Lanarkshire Council’s drive to increase recycling rates is also set to benefit as specially designed recycling points for flats are installed throughout the county.

These new points allow residents to recycle more easily, and the council is confident that will make a big difference to its aim of recycling 40 per cent of all waste by 2010.

Councillor Helen McKenna, convener of environmental services, said: “We’re already achieving 32 per cent recycling rates, thanks to the enthusiasm with which residents have welcomed the extended blue bin collections.

“But we’ve still got some ambitious targets to achieve – 40 per cent by 2010 and 50 per cent by 2013. That means we all have to recycle everything we can, and introducing these new points is an excellent way of helping people do that.”