Commercial waste bins on our streets

Businesses have a legal obligation to recycle and dispose of their waste safely and securely, and normally arrange this via a commercial waste contractor.

There is, however, an increasing number of complaints regarding the presentation and storage of commercial waste bins on roads and pavements within West Lothian.

Council officers have been asked by elected members to look into what action can be taken to tackle the issue, including looking at other areas of the country.

Commercial waste containers can clutter streets and pavements in our towns and villages.

Large waste containers, which can be over 1000 litres in size, are regularly left out on the pavements and streets as a permanent fixture.

A report at today's Environment and Sustainability PDSP set out that in a number of other council areas restrictions have already been put in place to address such matters. In these areas, where there is no off‐street storage, containers should be restricted to standard two wheel "wheelie" bins of 240 or 360 litres. These, or smaller containers, can be taken into premises overnight and not left out on the streets.

Businesses are not permitted to permanently store their waste containers in public, and are required to present rubbish and recycling during timed collection windows only. This may require more regular collections dependant on the waste demands of different businesses.

Several councils use existing legislation to operate schemes to control the storage and presentation of trade waste with designated control zones. The report sets out that progressing a similar scheme within West Lothian will require more detailed assessment.

Jim Jack, Head of Operational Services said: "Introducing a similar scheme in West Lothian would require resources to be identified to develop and manage the scheme. Implementation project would cover a number of key tasks including; the identification and agreement of zones where the restrictions would apply, setting up a permit scheme for trade waste contractors, liaising with businesses within the control zone to ensure they understood what was required of them, setting up the enforcement arrangements and resources and obtaining the required authorisation from committee before the scheme was implemented.

It would require us working with commercial waste operators to ensue that they are aware of what's required to deliver a successful scheme."

In Dundee, for example, the City Council supports commercial waste contractors operating, however, there are now in excess of 1200 commercial waste bins often left out within the city centre. These are unsightly and can be the cause of excess waste, spillage, fly-tipping and vermin.  The bins also present a hazard for pedestrians on the public footways."

"Further work is required to fully understand the resource requirements and process to implement a successful scheme and officers intend to work with the councils who have implemented schemes to develop the project plan for discussion in September."