The Kerbside Recycling Service Survey asked the following questions:
About you and your household
Q1 Please select your age band?
- 16-17
- 18-20
- 21-24
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 55-64
- 65 and over
Q2 Please enter your postcode with a space e.g., DD10 8AN
Q3 How many people live in your household on a permanent basis?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7 or more
Q4 What type of property do you live in?
- Detached House
- Semi Detached House
- Terraced House
- End Terrace
- Bungalow
- Cottage
- Flat
- Other (please specify)
Q5 We would like to find out more about the bins you use. Does your home:
- Have its own outdoor bins
- Share outdoor bins for non-recyclable (general) waste with neighbours
- Use sacks instead of bins
Q6 How would you describe your recycling habits?
- I try and recycle everything I can
- I try and recycle most of the time
- I recycle some of the time
- I don’t recycle
Go to Q7 if don’t recycle, and Q8 for all other answers.
Q7 If you never recycle, please tell us why? Please tick/circle all answers that apply.
- I don’t have many recyclable items to dispose of
- I don’t know what to put in the grey recycling bin
- I find it inconvenient to separate my rubbish for recycling
- I don’t think it makes a difference
- Other (please explain)
Recyclable waste
Glass bottles and jars
If all glass bottles are returned to the Deposit Return Scheme we’ll only need to recycle glass jars. Having this small amount of glass in a mixed recycling bin will increase sorting costs.
Many councils don’t collect glass at the kerbside and instead residents bring their glass to recycling points. Collecting glass separately would generate income rather than paying for it to be separated from other items.
Q8 If we introduced more recycling points would you be willing to bring your glass to a recycling point instead of it being collected at the kerbside, if this provided a more efficient collection system and saved the council money?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
Go to Q9.
Separate recycling bins
Separating recycling into two bins, one for paper and card and the other for glass jars, cans and plastic bottles and tubs, could save more than £400,000 each year (materials could generate an income rather than us paying for items to be sorted).
Q9 Would you be willing to have two separate recycling bins (one for paper and card, and one for glass, cans and plastic bottles and tubs), if this saved the council a significant amount of money?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
If agree or neither agree nor disagree, go to Q11.
If disagree, go to Q10.
Q10 Please tell us why you don’t want another bin?
- I have no room in my garden
- I have room for another bin but do not want one
- I could fit an extra recycling bin but would have to get rid of my garden waste bin
- I use communal bins – no room in bin store
- Other – please explain.
Go to Q12.
Q11 Would you be willing to have two recycling bins (one for paper and card, and one for cans and plastic bottles and tubs) and bring your glass to a recycling point?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
Food waste
Q12 If you live in a town or village and can make use of the food waste service (brown caddy), do you use it?
- I use my caddy and recycle all my food waste
- I use my caddy regularly
- I use my caddy sometimes
- I never use the service
- I don’t have the service
If ‘I never use it’, go to Q13, all other answers go to Q14.
Q13 If you never use your food waste caddy, please tell us why? Please tick/circle all answers that apply.
- Food waste will smell
- I don’t have much/ any food waste
- I don’t know what to put in the caddy
- I don’t have a caddy
- I give my food waste to pets
- Other (please explain)
Non-recyclable (general) waste
Studies have found that food waste makes up around a third of the contents of general waste bins, and in Angus 18% of purple bin contents could have been recycled in the grey bin.
A quarter of Scottish local authorities collect household bins every three weeks. This has been shown to improve recycling by up to 10% and save money on collection and disposal costs.
A small number of local authorities carry out non-recyclable waste collections every four weeks reducing their costs even further. In these cases, ‘hygiene collections’ for nappies are often provided.
Q14 If we provide the appropriate number and size of recycling and non-recyclable (general) waste bins, would you be willing to have your non-recyclable (general) waste bin collected every three weeks?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
If agree, or neither agree nor disagree, go to Q15.
If disagree, go to Q16.
Q15 If we provide the appropriate number and size of recycling and non-recyclable (general) waste bins, including a hygiene waste collection, would you be willing to have your non-recyclable (general) waste bin collected every four weeks?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
Recyclables in non-recyclable (general) waste bin
We currently place a tag on recycling bins that have the wrong items in them. This lets householders know that wrong items are in the bin and must be removed before the bin can be emptied. This system could also be applied to non-recyclable (general) waste bins to encourage recycling.
Q16 Knowing that too much recycling is being put in the purple non-recyclable (general) waste bin, and that this costs the council huge sums of money, do you agree (following an awareness raising campaign) that we should tag purple bins and leave them uncollected if they contain too many recyclable items?
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree