AS A COUNCILLOR, the weather often dictates what issues we are dealing with on behalf of our constituents. When it is sunny, there can be issues at busy coastal locations with litter and parking; when it snows, we are dealing with the efforts to clear streets; and when it is exceptionally windy like it was last week, our inboxes are full of messages about the council’s recycling boxes.

Often these are complaints about the boxes and their contents being blown about the street or that they are not big enough. People request that the council move to collecting recycling via a wheelie bin. The assumption is often that boxes are used purely because it is easier for the council but that is not the case – it is done because it is better for the environment because they produce better recycling.

The reason is contamination. When non-recyclable items get mixed up with recyclable products, they can’t be processed and recycled. That is the reason we are asked to clean out tins or yoghurt pots when recycling.

But what the recycling boxes do compared to the recycling wheelie bins used in some neighbouring local authorities is limit that harmful contamination by making sure that only properly separated materials are collected.

The recycling box collections in East Lothian have less than a four per cent contamination rate; what that means is more material going into the recycling process than being rejected and going into energy-from-waste landfill. For comparison, when in East Lothian wheelie bin collections were trialled in a few areas, the level of contamination experienced was between 40 per cent and 50 per cent. That is a big difference and would have a large impact on our ability to fight climate change.

On a national level in 2018, to put it into context, UK councils sent over 500,000 tonnes of recycling to landfill because it was contaminated. Now imagine if the UK as a whole had a contamination rate similar to East Lothian’s; that would mean only a tenth of that 500,000 tonnes going to landfill.

I also hear the recycling boxes aren’t big enough for a full family’s needs and the elastic on the lids snaps.

The system isn’t perfect but I think it is important to say you can get additional boxes and replacement lids whenever you need. It is as easy as contacting the council by phone or by emailing wasteservices@eastlothian.gov.uk and asking for them. We are also working to improve the collection frequency of your kerbside recycling service and hope to make big announcements in the coming months.

Now I know arguing for the boxes over a bin is unlikely to be popular with everyone – nothing I write ever is – but I hope that, having read this, everyone will concede that even though it isn’t perfect, it is being done for the right reasons and that is to enhance our recycling and protect our environment.