Fluorescent Tubes can now be recycled at West Dunbartonshire Councils three Household Waste Recycling Centres:
Fluorescent Tubes can be harmful to the environment. You should not dispose of fluorescent tubes, sodium lamps and energy saving bulbs and lighting in landfill. Normal bulbs can be disposed of straight into your landfill bin. Mercury is also a valuable natural resource and therefore recoering it and other materials from the tubes for reuse is an environmentally friendly option. Straight fluorescent lamps, sodium lamps and energy saving bulbs can be recycled at Dalmoak, Ferry Road and Stanford Street.
Visit the Household Waste Recycling Centres for details of the Household Waste Recycling Centre opening times.
'Love Food Hate Waste' Campaign
In an effort to reduce the food waste we throw away the Scottish Waste Aware Group has relaunched and updated their website, to raise awareness of the environmental and economic impacts of food waste.
The 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign focuses on Scottish households and encourages people to share their hints and tips on reducing food waste by using an interactive website with food waste diaries and a forum for exchanging ideas on how to avoid wasting the food they buy. There will also be help from chefs and food champions on how to plan and prepare food, information on storing and portioning and recipe ideas for leftovers.
The campaign is being supported by celebrity chefs such as Nick Nairn and food writers such as Martin Wishart and is also designed to link into other Scottish food related campaigns such as the Healthy Living Campaign, Scottish Food in Season and the Food Standards Agency. In a recent survey it was found that food waste accounted for almost a fifth (19%) of our domestic waste. The research found that cooked food is more likely to be thrown away than raw ingredients, and that fresh fruit and vegetables are the most common uncooked food to be discarded followed by bread and cakes.
The main reasons given in the survey for disposing of food were:
- Buying more than we need - unplanned shopping
- Storage - fridges are often too warm
- Not eating short shelf life items before their use by date
- Children's food likes and dislikes
- Informal or unplanned eating patterns leading to food bought that is not needed
To find out how to how to plan and prepare food, information on storing and portioning, recipe ideas for leftovers and more about the campaign visit the Love Food Hate Waste webpage.
For more information on any waste prevention or recycling issues visit the Waste Services webpage or call 0845 111 0050.
Kerbside Recycling Campaign Survey
West Dunbartonshire Council in partnership with the Scottish Waste Aware Group (SWAG), recently carried out a survey to assess resident’s attitudes to the council’s kerbside recycling service. The full survey report details the findings of a door to door survey which was carried out among West Dunbartonshire householders to establish how satisfied they are with the service and if they thought it should be changed in any way.
The main findings of the survey reported that 96% of West Dunbartonshire residents who qualify for the wheeled bin recycling services, have a blue bin and 93% have a brown bin available. The survey also suggested that 90% of blue wheeled bin users and 92% of brown wheeled bin users rate the service overall as very good or good. Whilst 84% of residents who use the blue box and bag service also rated their service overall as good or very good.
While some wheeled bin recycling service users were in favour of more frequent collections, more than 60% of the residents questioned, stated they would use a separate recycling container for glass bottles and jars, were they to be provided with one by the council.
The Council is currently performing above the 30% recycling target set for 2008 the previous Scottish Executive and will study the findings of the survey to develop future plans to meet the new challenging recycling targets announced recently by the Scottish Government.
If you would like further information, please download the full Kerbside Recycling Campaign Survey (380KB).
Recycling Poster
West Dunbartonshire Council has developed a downloadable recycling poster for all households in the area. The poster can be downloaded and used by all households which have blue bins, blue bags or blue boxes and gives hints on what can be recycled in the containers. It has been sustainably developed to reduce the issues relating to transport and delivery when guides, leaflets and flyers are delivered to households.
This is only one of the ways the Council is helping residents get to know what to recycle in their recycling containers. For further information on recycling please contact 0845 111 0500 or download the recycling poster.
Reduce Unwanted Direct Mail
Some residents of West Dunbartonshire may wish to reduce the amount of unwanted direct mail they receive by registering with a free service to remove their name from mailing lists in the UK.
The Mailing Preference Services (MPS) is a free service which has been operating for over 20 years to enable consumers to have their individual names and home addresses removed for UK mailing lists. If you would like to remove your name from mailing lists register with the Mailing Preference Service or by calling their information line on telephone number 0845 703 4599.
Residents can also opt out of the Royal Mail’s Door to Door Service. To do this you can call the Royal Mail on 08457 950 950 (Choose option 1 for business customers, then option 3, then option 1 then finally option 3) or visit the Royal Mail website.
The Scottish Waste Aware Group has also launched a campaign to reduce unwanted mail and to raise awareness of the impact of unwanted mail on the environment. Reducing the amount of unwanted mail delivered to Scottish households is a key action of the Scottish Government's Household Waste Prevention Action Plan. For more information on the campaign visit the Waste Aware Unwanted Mail.
Recycle your juice cartons
From the end of July 2007 West Dunbartonshire Council will be working in partnership with two organisations to roll out a pilot scheme for the recycling of drink and food cartons at five bring sites in the area.
Containers for collection of the cartons will be placed at the following locations:
- Dalmoak Household Waste Recycling Centre, Renton Rd, Dumbarton
- Ferry Road Household Waste Recycling Centre, Ferry Rd, Old Kilpatrick
- Stanford Street Recycling Centre, Stanford St, Clydebank
- Bank St, Alexandria
- Asda Car Park, St James Retail Park, Dumbarton
All of the collection containers will carry information giving examples of the type of container which can be recycled but generally they will accept all paper based liquid food and drink cartons such as those used for milk or fruit juice. West Dunbartonshire Council would encourage residents to recycle as many of their cartons as possible as this will help to prevent even more of our household waste from going to landfill.
For further information on this scheme or any other aspect of recycling please contact the Waste Aware Team on 0845 111 0050. For more information on carton recycling please visit:
Waste Aware Scotland
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Carpets can now be reused!
Reuse involves the multiple use of an item in its original form, for its original purpose or for an alternative, with or without reconditioning. In many cases waste that cannot be prevented can be reused instead of buying new products. For example, you can now recycle carpets at Spruce Carpets.
Carpets can be donated to Spruce Carpets, who will refurbish them and redistribute to residents in need of affordable flooring. Spruce Carpets can be contacted by telephone on 0141 425 1555 or visit the website Sprucecarpets.
