Councillors today agreed to a public consultation in September on a new waste strategy for Aberdeenshire in an effort to increase our 43% recycling rate.
However the strategy includes axing the Saturday morning garden waste collection service in Newtonhill and St Cyrus while rolling it out to 11 other communities across the North East.
I spoke out strongly against this and I hope the villagers will take part in the consultation to prove me right! The reason given by officers for the change is that Newtonhill is too near the Portlethen recycling centre. Well, there is not a lot we can do about that.
It strikes me as counter-intuitive to close the service when the council is wanting to divert more rubbish from landfill. Landfill costs the council £118/tonne while recycling in general costs £29/tonne.
There are also proposals to open Portlethen recycling centre five days a week from 9.30am to 4.30pm while other centres will open seven days a week. The reason for that is Portlethen is close to the recycling centre at Redcloak, Stonehaven.
I wasn’t happy with that either when I spoke at the infrastructure services committee. I felt that Newtonhill and Portlethen were being disadvantaged by geography.
Overall the central difference in the strategy being proposed by officers is that we all receive another recycling bin, this time for paper and cardboard. There will be a choice of how often the three bins are emptied. The frequency of emptying the landfill bin could be reduced. The food waste bin will still be emptied every week. More later.
I’ll post a reminder about the public consultation when it goes live in the autumn.
Hi Ian,
Needless to say I strongly object to the proposed loss of the garden waste lorry at Newtonhill.
I use this service on a weekly basis and I have a wheelie bin specifically for my garden waste.
How on Earth will I get this waste to Portlethen as suggested? A community trailer?
I have seen examples of fly tipping on paths South of Newtonhill. Is this what the Council want?
David
I’m with you David. The alternatives are use a composter or take the green waste to the Badentoy recycling centre in a car. The other option – which I’d like to avoid – is put it in the landfill bin. I hope many villagers will put forward their comments when the council carries out the public consultation.