Dundee residents may have to collect all their food waste as part of national plans to recycle almost all of people’s household rubbish.
City council environment services convener Jimmy Black said the authority is “actively working” on ways to collect more of the food that is thrown away by people.
This would probably mean household scraps would be collected in another recycling bin or a kitchen caddy before being picked up by the local authority.
The news comes after the Scottish Government revealed plans to introduce legislation requiring mandatory food waste collections by 2013.
Mr Black said Dundee is “ahead of the field” with regards to implementing further food recycling, but admitted there are still issues that need sorted out. These include leaving rotting food lying in a bin until collection day, which could attract vermin and potentially create hygiene problems.
“We are actively working on plans to recycle far more food waste than we do at present,” said Mr Black. “It is quite a challenging thing to do though, because you can’t have food lying around unless it is in special bins as it becomes smelly and a health hazard.”
The council already picks up glass and plastic bottles, cans, paper and garden waste from the kerbside of some households in the city and Mr Black said everything collected is recycled in some form.
He added the selling price for recycled goods is generally going up, which means more cash is coming into the authority.
“The market for recycling is improving, which is good for us because if we can make more money from recycling then it can help us keep the cost of things like council tax down,” said Mr Black. “Much of the waste goes into the incinerator at Baldovie where it is recycled as electricity.”
Scotland produces almost 20 million tonnes of waste every year and the Scottish Government have claimed their zero waste plan will not only benefit the environment but also potentially create over 2000 jobs.
First Minister Alex Salmond said, “If all of the food waste currently produced in Scotland was captured and treated separately, it could generate enough energy to power a city almost the size of Aberdeen.
“Our ground-breaking zero waste plan aims to change the way we view the things we throw away. We have set ambitious new targets to recycle 70% of all waste, with a maximum of five percent sent to landfill by 2025.
“Using waste as a resource will deliver climate-change benefits, create employment opportunities and support a thriving low-carbon economy.”
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user sporkist.