News / Free black bags binned
COUNCILLORS have backed plans to stop issuing free black bin bags to households in Shetland.
Members of the environment and transport committee unanimously agreed the measure in order to save nearly £25,000 as part of its comprehensive programme of cost-cutting.
The SIC had been the last local authority in Scotland to provide free bin bags to households but will instead now offer them for sale at a knock down price.
It has delivered 52 sacks to 10,500 houses every year at a cost of £23,783 – a figure rising to more than £30,000 when the staff time required to deliver them is factored in.
The full council is now set to make a decision to sell boxes of bags at a reduced price of £3.50 from their offices – much cheaper than the current £11 per box charged – to cover purchase, shipping, storage and admin costs. It works out at just under seven pence a bag.
They will also be distributed to rural shops to ensure straightforward access for those in remote areas.
Lerwick South councillor Jonathan Wills described the decision as an “unpleasant but necessary duty to get the budget down”.
Infrastructure services director Maggie Sandison said the provision of free bin bags was one of the last items of optional spending within her department. Around £37 million a year is spent on services including ferries, roads, refuse collection and street cleaning.
Sandison told councillors that officials were continuing to work with Zero Waste Scotland on finding the best strategy to collect rubbish and recyclable material in Shetland.
The SIC is one of only five Scottish councils to carry out weekly refuse collections. Switching to a fortnightly collection is one option under consideration, but Sandison said the Gremista waste-to-heat plant ensured Shetland’s situation was different to that of mainland authorities.
“The best practicable option is to continue to burn waste, so incineration with a better capture hat we move to recycle more and of recycling of glass and cans is considered to be best,” she said.
“However Zero Waste are proposing that we move to recycle more and we achieve that by importing residual waste from elsewhere in Scotland to create more capacity for us to divert waste from the energy recovery plant.”
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