Our Community Waste Officer, Nom Wright, will be in Westhill over the next few weeks to focus on explaining fully how to use the Food Waste collection service. Nom will be happy to answer any waste and recycling questions you may have.

You will find Nom at the following venues:

Tesco, Westhill – tomorrow – Monday 19th Sept 10am-2pm

Costco, Westhill, Thursday 22nd Sept – 10am-3pm

Tesco, Westhill – Wednesday 12th Oct – 4-7pm

Costco, Westhill – Wednesday 26th Oct – 4-7pm

As part of the ongoing improvement works at Westhill Shopping Centre, the Recycling Point located at the rear of the centre will be moved to within the main car park area at the front. This relocation is due to take place tomorrow (Thursday 23rd April).

The new food waste collection and recycling service begins in parts of the Garioch area and surrounds from next month. (September 22)

It is being introduced as part of changes to the way recycling and waste are dealt with throughout Aberdeenshire.

Food waste is placed in a kitchen caddy that is used with free liners making it clean and easy to use and store. It is then transferred to a locakable green outdoor caddy for collection at the kerbside.

All cooked and uncooked food waste, including bones, will be collected weekly. Recycling and waste will be collected on alternate weeks.

 The new system of fortnightly co-mingled recycling means recyclable materials will be collected together in the same wheeled bin, replacing the blue and black boxes currently used.

The changes are designed to help the council meet the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste targets by increasing the range of materials collected at the kerbside and making it easy for householders to use, raising the recycling rate.

The new services are being introduced in stages, finishing in south Aberdeenshire in March 2015.

 To view the rollout timetable on a map, please see our website. http://bit.ly/1nnYG4p

The car park area at Cluny School has been extended and space incorporated in to the bin store for a public recycling point. Materials collected will be paper, cardboard, clear glass, brown glass, green glass, plastic bottles, cans and textiles. Hopefully this facility will be in place week commencing 17th June 2013.

Cllr Fiona McRae, Cllr Hamish Vernal, Cllr Iris Walker at UPM Shotton

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of visiting the Mixed Recycling Plant in Shotton, along with my colleagues, Cllr Fiona McRae and Cllr Hamish Vernal. Aberdeenshire Council at the moment transport 11,000 tonnes per annum of newspaper and pamphlets to the plant which are then recycled back in to paper for the newspaper industry.

UPM Shotton is the UK’s largest 100% recycled newsprint paper mill. Operating in the UK for more than 25 years (the site previously housed British Steel), the site has it’s own renewable energy power plant – reducing on site CO2 emissions by 100,000 tonnes a year. A £17 million state-of-the-art Materials Recovery and Recycling Facility started up in 2011.

It was fascinating to see how co-mingled household waste (which Aberdeenshire residents are going to benefit from in the near future) is transported, sorted and recycled on site.

The Scottish Government has set new targets for councils under the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 meaning sending certain materials such as biodegradable waste to landfill will be banned. Co-mingled recycling will be phased in over two years beginning late 2013 or early 2014.