Councillors in Dundee have backed changes that will see collections of general rubbish across much of the city switch from weekly to fortnightly.
The change was voted through on Monday evening by the SNP administration despite calls from opposition members to delay until a public consultation had been carried out or to consider keeping the weekly pick-ups.
Environment convener Craig Melville said the city was one of only five out of 32 Scottish local authorities that still had a weekly bin collection for residual waste and action was needed to ensureGovernment recycling targets were met.
He insisted: “This is not a reduction in service it’s an expansion in service.”
Under the new system, food waste will be collected every week and there will be fortnightly collections of paper,cardboard, plastics and metals.
The intention is to reduce the amount of general waste that households generate.
There will also be collections every four weeks of glass and every two or four weeks of garden waste, depending on the season.
It will take two years to bring in thesystem across the city. The first of six phases later this year will affect around 12,000 homes.
A report by environment director Ken Laing was presented to councillors at City Chambers. This noted that flats make up half of all Dundee’s homes and receive only a limited recycling service at present.
Mr Laing said: “In some flatted areas, where particular spatial constraints are evident, the current residual waste methods and collections frequencies may require to be retained.
“This may mean collection frequencies on a more frequent that weekly basis will be continued, depending on local characteristics.”
He was echoed by councillor Melville, who said: “This is not a `one-size fits all’ approach. Certain tenemented areas will not see any changes.”
Labour councillor Lesley Brennan said she was worried about the impact of the changes on carers.
She said: “Carers have expressed their concern to me about the disposal of absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) such as adult nappies and incontinence pads as well as clinical waste in the form of stoma bags and bottles from feeds that are disposed of in the grey bin.
“They say that they already have more general waste bins than normal, and that these are full by the end of the week. One mother informed me that she has three bins and that she would not have space for any more.”
Mr Laing said the council would look to consult with people regarding any special needs.
Another Labour councillor, Brian Gordon, said the UK Government was making £130 million available to councils in England to switch fortnightly bin collections back to weekly.
However Mr Laing said there was evidence that councils that had adopted fortnightly collections had seen positive changes in recycling rates. Dundee will have to almost double its rate to meet the 2020 target of 60% of household waste being recycled.
SNP councillor Jimmy Black told the environment committee: “There are still many people who stuff their black bins full of waste and we have to break that habit. Waste is a resource and we are moving towards zero waste in this country.”
There were two votes on the issue.
The first was on a motion proposed by Labour’s Richard McCready to defer a decision until a full consultation had been carried out with the public, including residents’ and tenants’ associations and all interested community groups.
He argued it was “rather perverse” to bring the report before committee before carrying out such a consultation.
After hearing Mr Melville say that the views of local communities would be taken into account when implementing the new system in each area, the committee split along party lines with the 12 opposition members backing the motion and the 15 SNP members voting against.
Liberal Democrat Fraser Macpherson then proposed instructing officers to bring forward a report that would improve and expand recycling services while also preserving the weekly collection of residual waste.
The outcome of this vote was identical to the first.
Mr Melville said it was important for people to be fully informed about the changes and he promised there would be an extensive education and consultation process that would enable the council to decide the best approach for each area of the city.