East Ayrshire to bin controversial recycling trolleys as part of £10m overhaul

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A massive overhaul of East Ayrshire Council's bin collections will see the end of the current recycling trolley scheme.It will be replaced by four main bins for residual waste, paper/card, plastic/tin, and glass, collected on a four weekly rota.For the first time, there will be a collection of soft plastic films including fruit, biscuit and crisp wrappers.

Food waste will continue to be collected weekly.The new system is not expected to be brought in until 2026.It is just one part of a comprehensive waste services review will see a one-off spend of £10m, which the council says will result in annual savings of £1.7m.It is just six years since the recycling trolley scheme was launched, along with the costly specialist Romaquip recycling vehicles.EAC will now have to invest millions in new vehicles and infrastructure for the scheme.A stark picture of council finances has been presented to councillors in the last few months, with a number of departments being told that they cannot continue to deliver their services they way they currently do.The waste review is one of the first to come to council having taken a year and half to compile.The wider review will also see the loss of around 30 posts, although the council says that this will be managed through natural turnover when vacancies arise.The service is currently looking at a overspend of £2m a year.EAC says that the decisions taken will see a recurring saving of £1.7m and 'allow the service to recover its costs'.There will also be an increase to garden waste collection fee.

From April 2025, the price will rise from £30 to the Scottish average of £40 and, from then on, will be linked that cost.Special uplifts of bulky waste will cost a flat fee of £39.80 for up to seven