Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) has employed the services of a company based 448 miles away from Perth to deliver its bins.
Over 71,000 Perth and Kinross households are currently taking delivery of their new grey-lidded recycling bins as part of a £2.72 million shake-up in council collections.
But eyebrows were raised in some quarters as to why a bin – designed to help tackle climate change – was being delivered by a company whose headquarters were so far away.
Jett Distribution in Norfolk, however, says it is the only company doing this in the UK and delivers and collects over 2.5 million products every year in the UK and Europe.
Residents receiving new recycling bins
Over the past few weeks thousands of Perth and Kinross households have received their new grey-lidded bin for metals, plastics, cartons and foil.
Kerbside collections for the new recycling service are scheduled to start on October 30.
Jett Distribution has been given the job of delivering the bins to homes across Perth and Kinross due to the niche nature of the task.
A spokesperson for the Great Yarmouth-based company told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are the only company doing this line of work throughout the UK and we distribute through UK/Ireland and sometimes Germany.”
Jett has done a lot of work in Scotland recently for other local authorities including both Stirling and Clackmannanshire.
A company spokesman said: “The project in Perth and Kinross is a longer project – about eight to 12 weeks – because it’s a very rural area it takes a bit longer.
“The bins are stored in a local depot and we transport them to residents.
“We carry about 150-160 bins at a time and go backwards and forwards to the depot.”
Perth and Kinross Council says firm operating from city
Perth and Kinross Council said that while a specialist company was being used to deliver individual bins, PKC was responsible for commercial and communal bins.
A PKC spokesperson said: “The wheelie bins are being delivered to residential properties by a company, with headquarters in Great Yarmouth, that specialises in delivering wheelie bins for local authorities across the UK, and who are operating out of Perth while this takes place.
“Perth and Kinross Council is responsible for delivering commercial and communal bins.”
The council says it has has secured £2.72 million from the Scottish Government to cover the costs of the service change.
The money has come from the Recycling Improvement Fund, administered by Zero Waste Scotland.
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