Plans to implement controversial three weekly bin collections in Argyll and Bute were discussed yesterday.
Councillors heard the arrangements for the new policy, which will see Argyll and Bute Council saving £500,000 a year.
Deputy Council Leader Ellen Morton said: “We are not a pioneer, quite a considerable number of councils in Scotland have already gone down this route.
“There are still a lot of people who aren’t recycling. Until we make them recycle they wont do it.”
The decision to reduce the frequency of general waste collections from once a fortnight to every three weeks is part of wide-ranging cuts to hit the beleaguered local authority.
The plan has already come in for criticism by Oban Community Council chairwoman Marri Malloy, who called it “not workable”.
General household waste which goes into green bins will be collected on a three-weekly basis, while recyclable waste in the blue bins will continue to be collected fortnightly.
At yesterday’s full council meeting, Pippa Milne, Director of Development and Infrastructure Services, said: “This is about the procedures that relate to the actual workings of this on the ground.
“It is about trying to reduce the amount of waste we have to landfill by reducing the capacity of waste people are able to dispose of, shifting a behaviour change towards people separating more waste for recycling.
“From our analysis one third of waste that currently goes to landfill is suitable for recycling.”
Each tonne of general waste costs the authority £84.40 in landfill tax.
Ms Milne said that families with more than five people, or with someone with a medical condition or children with nappies, would be eligible for a second waste bin.
Councillor James Robb said: “We have to be honest sometimes, this is a financial position. This is a budget cut, we all took that decision. I don’t think what we are doing will have any affect (on the amount we landfill) because there are so many loopholes.”
Councillor Rory Colville believed people would accept the need for the policy. He said: “At the meetings I have been to in my area, the vast majority of people accept we can’t continue to send to landfill the amount we are doing.”
Councillor Aileen Morton said: “There are huge savings to be made in terms of the amount of tax we have to pay for landfill.
“I speak as someone who made changes myself. With my second child I used washable nappies instead of disposable ones, which did make a difference to the amount of rubbish we had.”
