Dundee households will be given more bins to put out if a scheme to collect food waste is given the go-ahead.
The Scottish Government had told local authorities that it expects them to collect food waste separately from other rubbish by 2013.
This is part of a drive to maximise recycling. Scottish households produce over half a million tonnes of food and drink waste each year.
Jim Laing, the city council’s head of waste management, wants a pilot scheme to get under way later this year probably in September so his department can work out the best way to expand it city-wide when the time comes.
He said, “The initial scheme will involve approximately 2400 properties and will cover a mix of housing types and areas.
“During the pilot, each household in the trial areas will be provided with a kitchen caddy, compostable caddy liners and a small container for kerbside presentations of the food waste on collection day.
“Full instructional details will also be provided to householders in advance of the trial.
“Monitoring of the scheme will be undertaken by the in-house recycling team and householders will be actively encouraged to participate.”
A decision about which areas will be included in the pilot has yet to be made. It will run for a year before a phased roll-out across the city begins.
Mr Laing reckons the containers, bags and publicity material will cost £42,000. Councillors will be asked to approve the spending next week.
Dundee households already have wheelie bins for domestic, paper and garden waste and the food waste receptacles would be a fourth. There is no indication of the detailed nature of the container that householders would put on the kerbside or of the kitchen caddy.’Ahead of the game’Jimmy Black, convener of the environment services committee, said, “With new regulations being introduced that require councils to collect food waste separately from 2013, we are once again ahead of the game.
“Around 30% of the total household waste is food and up to now it has been expensive and technically difficult to find a way to recycle it.
“Now that it is possible to cost-efficiently produce good quality compost exclusively from food waste, we want to introduce this pilot scheme.
“The people of the city have been at the leading edge of recycling for many years and I am sure that given the opportunity to increase even more the amount of waste recycled in Dundee, they will be as supportive as ever.”
Zero Waste Scotland, a government-backed body, is spending £4 million this year on projects to help local authorities and private operators set up separate food waste collections for homes and businesses.
It estimates that the average household throws away food worth £430 every year, with milk, bread, carbonated drinks, potatoes and pre-packed meals the most common items to end up in the bin.
Collections of food waste were trialled in six Scottish local authorities, including Perth and Kinross, in 2008 and 2009. The average amount of food gathered per participating household varied between 1.7 and 3.7 kilos per week.
Some 60% of residents surveyed said they had become more aware of the amount of food they were throwing away and 30% said they had made efforts to cut down.