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Shop NowEdinburgh's Wee New Bins
Edinburgh's Wee New Bins
This September, a third of Edinburgh residents will have their red and blue recycling boxes removed.
“What?” we hear you cry in outrage. “They’re taking away their waste management receptacles! But where will they put their rubbish, recycling and, yes indeed, their foetid food scraps ready for composting?”
Well never fear, because in place of these red and blue boxes, the council will put brand new wheelie bins and a brand new box, the plan being to make recycling easier and more efficient.
“Well, thank heavens for that,” you cry. “Never worry us like that again!”
Sorry, we won’t. Anyway, this new regime will be rolled out in phases, with 20,000 homes receiving their new kit on 1st September. It all sounds great to us and this kind of thing is happening in different areas across the UK, with old wheelies being replaced with new ones. The thing that we’re wondering is: Are these wheelies being recycled?
After all, with 20,000 Edinburgh homes going through the old switcheroo on day one, that’s 40,000 bins and boxes suddenly rendered obsolete and taken away within a few short hours.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re sure that Edinburgh Council know what they’re doing, but sometimes these changes are tantamount to printing off thousands of leaflets on how to decrease paper consumption… Actually, it pretty much is that, as houses affected will receive information in the post from mid-July, instructing them where to put their waste paper (as well as other recyclable materials).
However, Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “Recycling is something that everyone needs to embrace if Edinburgh is to become a sustainable city, and expanding capacity and simplifying the process for residents is essential for this.”
We trust Les on this one; we’re just having a bit of fun. But hopefully the day will come when each of us finds recycling and composting so simple a routine, big changes like this will be rendered unnecessary. Until then, do your part, think green, and remember that even things like bus tickets can be recycled!