Zero Waste Scotland awards Scottish Borders Council £250,000
The funding package is in support of a new food waste collection service to be introduced for around 24,000 homes in Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, Peebles and Selkirk. Receiving this funding is hugely encouraging for the area, and Scotland in general, who appear to be working harder than most to welcome a Zero Waste Lifestyle.
The food recycling scheme in Scotland is making great strides, and this latest endowment will be invested into collection vehicles and food waste bins, also known as caddies. It was regulated back in 2012 that food recycling collections would be performed by all of those in non-rural (urban) areas by January 1st 2016.
Similar food recycling schemes already take place in other parts of the UK, and you will know if you are involved in one if you already have two food waste bins, a small one inside and a larger one outside, for which the contents will be collected weekly. Most interestingly for the 24,000 homes who are due to start recycling their food waste, a contract for the food processing has not yet been awarded, meaning that it’s likely that bidding is ongoing. The food will most likely be recycled into energy or fertilizer.
David Paterson, Executive Member for Environmental Services at Scottish Borders Council said “I am delighted that the council has secured this funding package from Zero Waste Scotland which will help to cover some of the costs of introducing the mandatory food waste collections. The council and ZWS have been working closely together, and we look forward to continuing to do so during this project.”
Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland, Iain Gulland stated “We’re delighted to award a substantial funding package, worth almost £250,000, to help Scottish Borders Council to introduce food waste collections for residents.
He went on to add “Over 1.3 million households across Scotland now have a food waste collection thanks to Zero Waste Scotland’s support. This will avoid thousands of tonnes of food waste going to landfill unnecessarily, and it is great news that residents in the Borders will be benefiting from this service too.”
1.3 million is staggering, especially when you consider that there are 2.4 million households in Scotland. In less than three years of attempting to offer food recycling in Scotland, they have reached more than half. Kudos ZWS!