PRESS RELEASE - Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
TUESDAY 30 June 2006

Organic Waste Collection Harris, Uist and Barra

Important changes to the refuse collection are already being rolled out throughout Lewis in the form of a new organic waste collection. It is anticipated that the organic bin deliveries will be competed in Lewis by September. Deliveries should commence in Harris at the end of August.

The next few weeks will see bin deliveries/re-labeling commencing in the Uists and this will be completed over a two month period with the service due to commence late summer. It is anticipated that the organic bin deliveries will commence in Barra in July with new collections starting late summer.

The change to this service will mean that householders who normally put materials such as kitchen and garden waste, paper and cardboard into their black wheelie bin will need to separate all these materials into the bin labeled for organic waste only. In Lewis and Harris the organic waste will be collected on the same day as the refuse (residual waste) and both bins should be put out to the kerbside together on collection day. However in Uist and Barra there will be a change to the current timetable with organic and refuse (residual waste) collected on an alternate weekly basis. Householders in those areas will be informed of the changes through public notices in local newspapers and the Waste Aware website.

This change in service is necessary so that the Western Isles can meet government targets and reduce the impact of land filling on the environment by diverting as much organic waste as possible from landfill.

The New Service

Householders with two or more bins will have one bin re-labeled for organic waste only. If the household has only one bin they will be issued with a new bin marked for organic waste.

It is unfortunately neither economically nor environmentally justifiable to provide new bins for every household in the Western Isles as it would cost over £180,000 and approximately 8,000 existing bins would become obsolete and require disposal.

When staff are re-labeling the bins, they will also provide households with a free kitchen caddy, information leaflet and three heavy duty paper bin liners which will help keep the organic bins clean. Further liners can be purchased from local retailers. Plastic bags/liners cannot be used to wrap the organic waste before putting it into the organic bin as it will severely affect the end quality of the product (compost) and may result in having to landfill the compost.