Last June, I welcomed the City Council's introduction of a food recycling trial project. At the moment, this covers only a limited number of addresses (in the West End - Clayhills Drive, Glamis Drive (34, 40, 43 & 45), Invergowrie Drive, Menzieshill Road, Perth Road (391 - South Lodge only), Whitefauld Road - 234 properties in total).
I recently asked the City Council's Recycling Projects Officer for an update and she has provided this useful response:
"The food waste trial is progressing extremely well with around 40% participation each week and an overall weight of approximately 3 tonnes - this equates to around 4kg per participating household per week.
Our Recycling Advisers are currently undertaking doorstep surveys to assess the participants' views on the scheme and to try and encourage non-participating households to take part. Full data for your area will be available in due course but at present I am aware that the intervention by the Recycling Advisers has resulted in a significant increase in participation in those areas where doorstep surveys have been fully completed. Feedback has been on the whole extremely positive and we're confident that this will remain the case throughout the duration of the survey period.
Full details of the survey finding will be compiled in the coming months and I will forward these to you as soon as I have them."
I am pleased at the progress on this project - food recycling is a vital component of the City's recycling efforts but it must be extended in the near future. I get numerous requests to also extend glass/plastics recycling green boxes and have requested that more households in the West End are offered these soon.