Binmen to help householders clean up their act on recycling

BINMEN are to dish out recycling advice to householders under a shake-up of the city's rubbish collections.

The refuse collectors will speak to residents or put leaflets with recycling advice through doors on streets where they spot excess recyclable waste during their daily rounds.

The reorganisation of the city's bin collections will initially get under way in the south of the city where around 20,000 households will have their collection days changed from next month.

However, the two-month pilot – which will see changes in shift patterns for the binmen and collection routes changed – is likely to be rolled out across the city.

This will mean efficiency savings of around £2.4 million for the city, but around 20 per cent of the 325 refuse collectors are expected to lose their jobs.

However, council chiefs today said this will be achieved primarily through getting rid of agency staff and redeploying other staff on recycling duties. The 'Pathfinder' project gets under way in south Edinburgh on August 12 and will also see the binmen working from the same depot as the rubbish task force teams and environmental wardens.

This has been done to encourage greater co-operation between the three departments tasked with keeping the streets clean.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said:

"The Pathfinder will influence how waste and recycling service changes will be implemented across the rest of the city. We are confident that it will deliver a host of benefits, such as improved customer satisfaction and increased responsibilities for staff, as well as helping to drive Edinburgh's recycling rate even higher."

Part of the changes will also see workers move from a five to four-day shift pattern, working from Tuesday to Friday.

The pilot scheme in the south of the city is being implemented by 28 volunteers from within the refuse department.

One volunteer, Reg Cutkelvin said: "I think the project is a good idea. I signed up because I wanted a change.

"I'm looking forward to being more involved with the public and letting them know about the part we all play in recycling."

Find out how your street is affected by the changes to collections by logging on to www.edinburgh.gov.uk/waste after 2pm today.