Kerbside recycling service survey

Angus Council is facing a financial crisis. We forecast a budget gap of £51.9 million over the next three years.

This equates to savings of 19.3% of the council’s base budget. That’s the equivalent of completely stopping:

all children, families and justice services
PLUS all waste services
PLUS all roads and transport services (£55m)

Deposit return scheme

The Deposit Return scheme (DRS) for Scotland was scheduled to launch in August 2023, introducing a 20p deposit on drinks containers including plastic bottles (except milk), cans and glass bottles.

The scheme is now likely to launch October 2025 at the earliest.

Effect on bin collections

A DRS will lead to a significant decrease in the amount of these materials going in household recycling bins.

We’re looking at how we can make bin collections more efficient both before and after the deposit return scheme starts.

We can save huge sums of money by changing the way we collect household waste and recycling. This includes recycling more as it’s cheaper to recycle.

By saving money through changes to kerbside recycling, we can reduce cuts to other services such as schools, social care and roads.

Survey

So we can understand what is important to Angus residents, we ran the kerbside recycling service survey from 14 November to 11 December 2022. The survey is now closed.

Non-recyclable (general) waste

Three or four-weekly collections

Almost half of respondents (49%) said they would not be willing to have their non-recyclable (general) waste bin collected every three weeks if Angus Council provided the appropriate number and size of recycling and non-recyclable (general) waste bins. Forty seven percent agreed they would be willing, and 4% neither agreed nor disagreed. This means that just over half of respondents did not disagree with having their non-recyclable waste bin emptied every three weeks.

Of those respondents who were willing to have their non-recyclable waste bin emptied on a three-weekly basis, 44% agreed they would be willing to have this bin emptied every four weeks (provided that ‘hygiene collections’ for nappies are provided), and 48% disagreed with four weekly collections. Overall, this equates to 22% of the total respondents being willing to have four weekly collections of non-recyclable waste.

There was no significant difference in response by property type, except for those living in terraced houses where 64% of residents did not agree to three weekly collections. Those aged 25-34 were most likely to disagree with three weekly collections (62%) and those aged 55 or older were least likely to disagree (42%). Chart 3 shows there was a correlation between the number of household members and willingness to have the non-recyclable waste bin emptied every three weeks – households with one member were most willing and those with 7+ least willing to do so. Sixty-six percent of households with five members disagreed with three weekly collections compared to 40% of those in single person households.

Chart 3 - Households disagreeing with three-weekly non-recyclable waste collections

Recyclables in non-recyclable (general) waste bin

Knowing that too much recycling is being put in the purple non-recyclable (general) waste bin, and that this costs the council huge sums of money, over half of respondents (51%) agreed that purple bins should be tagged and left uncollected if they contain too many recyclable items, as per recycling bins that have too many non-recyclable items.

This was based on an awareness raising campaign being carried out and understanding that food waste makes up around a third of the contents of non-recyclable (general) waste bins, and that 18% of purple bin contents could be recycled in the grey bin.

Seven percent of residents neither agreed nor disagreed with tagging purple bins, and 42% disagreed with tagging. Of those that disagreed with tagging, there was no significant difference in response dependent on age or property type except for residents in terraced housing who were most likely to object to tagging (59%), and those aged over 65 who were least likely to object to tagging (37%).

Chart 4 shows there was a broad correlation between the number of residents in a property and agreement for non-recyclable waste bins with too many recyclables in them to be tagged; households with seven members were least likely to agree however households with six members were most likely to agree (followed closely by single-person households).

Chart 4 - Households that disagree with tagging non-recyclable waste bins containing too many recyclables