Changes to Waste & Recycling Collection Services – Christmas and New Year 2020/2021
| Usual uplift date | New uplift date |
|---|---|
| Friday 25 December 2020
Monday 28 December 2020 |
Sunday 27 December 2020
Monday 28 December 2020 |
| Friday 1 January 2021
Monday 4 January 2021 |
Sunday 3 January 2021
Monday 4 January 2021 |
Please note: Your normal waste and recycling collection service will continue as normal out with these dates.
Recycling
West Dunbartonshire residents currently recycle around 47% of their waste. Well done and thank you. During the Christmas festivities don’t forget that cards, packaging, food and most wrapping paper can be recycled, plus Christmas trees once the festivities are over.
Cards
All Christmas cards can be recycled, please place them in your blue bin or bag. Alternatively you can use the paper banks at our Household Waste Recycling Centres and mini sites. Some stores also take Christmas cards for recycling for charity.
Christmas cards can also be reused – why not make decorations and labels for Christmas presents from them in time for next year?
Wrapping paper
To check if your wrapping paper is recyclable give it the ‘scrunch test’ – if it stays crumpled it can also go into your paper and cardboard recycling container. Any wrapping paper which ‘springs back’ after being scrunched up is plastic based and cannot be recycled.
Food
Don’t forget that your Christmas food can also be recycled; anything from vegetable peelings to turkey bones can be put into your brown bins for regular collection.
Please remember to use the compostable liners that we provide to recycle your food waste – these are available from Council libraries and public buildings. You can also tie a liner to your brown bin kerbside and our waste operatives will supply you with a new roll.
There are also many ways to reduce food waste – for example why not use your leftovers to make a new meal?
Visit http://scotland.lovefoodhatewaste.com for food waste-busting tips and lots of recipe ideas. The website also has a ‘perfect portion tool’ which is really useful if you are cooking for lots of people.
Glass
From beetroot jars to bottles of sparkling wine to toast Christmas and bring in the New Year, West Dunbartonshire has over 125 glass recycling points throughout the district. Find your nearest glass recycling point.
Christmas Trees
Residents can bring their REAL (not artificial) Christmas trees to any of the two Household Waste Recycling Centres at Dalmoak, Renton and Ferry Road, Old Kilpatrick – or leave them next to their brown bins (not inside them) for a kerbside collection. Please remember to:
- Remove any decorations before placing your tree out for collection
- Cut your tree in half if it is bigger than your brown bin
- Put the brown bin out next to the tree, even if it is empty, so the crews know to stop at your property
Please note: The Christmas tree collection scheme is only for properties which have a kerbside co-mingled food and garden waste collection. Other properties should bring their trees to one of our Household Waste Recycling Centres. This uplift service does not apply to artificial or plastic Christmas trees, please dispose of these at one of the Household Waste Recycling Centres.
Bin collection days in West Dunbartonshire
Kerbside and Doorstep Waste/Recycling Collection Services
| Usual uplift date | New uplift date |
|---|---|
| Friday 25 December 2020 | Sunday 27 December 2020 |
| Friday 1 January 2021 | Sunday 3 January 2021 |
You can find your bin collection day by entering your postcode below:
Putting your bin out
Time
Put your bins out before 6.30am on your collection day, with the handle facing the road.
Alternate weekly collection
Household residual (landfill) waste will be collected one week, and recycling materials the next on a continuous basis.
Cannot find your collection day
Please contact the Fleet and Waste Services team to find out your collection day
Much more sensible advise about how to recycle waste. People, for the most part want to do the right thing, and encouragement is what is needed.
The recent announcement by a council Poo Bah that she wanted to introduce fines for residents not recycling properly certainly got people’s backs up. Counter productive and then some!
But encouragement in the press is not just the only tool in the fight against waste. It’s no good saying one thing and then for operators at recycling facilities to turn away people because they haven’t booked their trailer in 24 hours before. If folks are good enough to take stuff to the dump then it should be accepted, not turned away.
Similarly the council need to investigate the extent that corporate commercial interest may play in deliberately maximising the amount of blue bin recyclable that is not recycled but sent instead to tip to drive up the tip operators tipping fees. if everything was recycled there would be no income for the landfill operator – and residents might want to enquire if there have ever been issues with recyclable being dumped deliberately.
Otherwise, aside of potential management malpractice, top marks to the guys on the refuse jobs. They do a sterling job and don’t hang about. Always on time, they, unlike some others are a credit to public service.
And lastly, why isn’t the government doing more to replace plastic and packaging that is impossible to recycle. Why isn’t the council Poo Bah who recommended fining residents not recommending fining the big waste producers. Or is she just a Poo Bah in a sinecure who looks down on the residents who pay her wages and pension.