Organic Waste Collection
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar are proud to be the first local authority in Scotland to build a recycling plant to process the Organic waste which you separate at home. This waste is transferred to the Creed Park where it is processed through an Anaerobic Digester to be made into high-grade compost.
The Organic collection was rolled out in April 2006 through a course of various stages throughout the Western Isles. Each household received a small waste container for easy disposal of kitchen waste along with a small paper liner and a wheelie bin containing a yellow Organics Only sticker and 3 large paper bin liners.
The Zero Waste Western Isles Team need your help for this service to work and encourage you to make correct use of your Organic labelled bin. Materials such as Garden Waste, Kitchen Waste, Paper and Cardboard must be put into the Organic bin but please do not useplastic bags to enclose the organic waste as these cannot be composted and will greatly effect the quality of the final product produced at the Creed Integrated Waste Management Facility.
If you wish to use paper liners, the large size suitable for the wheelie bin can be purchased from various outlets in Lewis & Harris and Uist & Barra. Unfortunately, the small sized paper liners are not stocked in local shops as they were found to be too costly.
You could however, use newspaper to line your kitchen container and then transport it to the Organic wheelie bin, or an alternative would be to use a plastic bag as a liner, empty the food waste into the wheelie bin and reuse the plastic bag. It is very important to remember that you must not put any plastics into your Organic bin. There is always the option not to use a liner in your kitchen waste container and simply rinse it clean after it has been emptied.
As for lining your Organic wheelie bin, please be assured that this is optional. You do not have to use paper liners but if you wish to keep your bin slightly cleaner and your waste contained together, the option is there for you to take advantage of!
In order to meet government targets to reduce the impact of landfilling on the environment, we need to divert as much organic waste as possible from Landfill. This is why Comhairle nan Eilean Siar introduced a new Organic Waste Collection throughout the Western Isles.
