The size of wheelie bins in Aberdeen is to be reduced after a council decision yesterday to boost recycling rates.
Residents will be issued with new containers with about one quarter less capacity for rubbish – a reduction from 240 litres (52 imperial gallons) to 180 litres (39.5 imp gal).
However, the size of recycling buckets will be increased to accommodate extra materials such as plastic tubs and waxed drinks cartons that will not have to be discarded.
The larger containers will replace the existing black box for glass bottles and sack for newspapers and cardboard.
All councils are working to meet Scottish Government targets to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
By 2025, the aim is that 70% will be recycled or composted. In 2012, Aberdeen City Council managed 37.3%.
The plans were agreed unanimously by members of the council’s housing and environment committee yesterday.
Councillor Jean Morrison, vice-convener of housing and the head of the authority’s zero waste management sub-committee, said the council had to stop “needlessly burying waste” in landfill sites.
She said: “A single, large wheeled bin for recycling would drastically increase the volume of waste a single household can recycle and make the process much simpler, removing the necessity to separate recyclable materials into different containers.
“Clearly the council has to balance its own aspirations and ambitions for waste management with those of the city’s citizens and provide waste collection services that are suitable and appropriate for all.
“We believe that reducing the capacity of the general waste wheeled bin while vastly increasing the capacity to recycle would strike the best balance as we seek to drive up recycling rates and become less reliant on landfill.”
It is expected that the new service will be rolled out in financial year 2015/16.
A council spokesman said that some existing general waste containers will likely be re-used as larger recycling bins.
The cost of new bins that will be required is budgeted for in the capital plan for the council’s zero waste project and would be offset by the savings in landfill tax.
The frequency of all kerbside collections will not change.
The authority’s waste and recycling manager Pete Lawrence said in a report to the committee that the shift would effectively “triple” the amount of recycling by each individual household.