Wednesday February 11th 2026
Green bin for plastics, cans and cartons
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
West Lothian householders are going to have to pay for replacement bins if they are stolen if budget proposals are agreed.
Charging households up to £30 a bin is set to be introduced in April if councillors agree budget proposals put forward by officers. It could save the council £50,000 a year.
Scott Anderson, the council’s Recycling and Waste Manager, told councillors the current costs, absorbed by the council, were “exorbitant”.
Until now replacement bins have been given free of charge to households with the costs covered by funding by the Scottish Government agency Zero Waste Scotland.
Head of Operational Services, David Maule told the meeting that, until now, the council only made an initial charge to house builders for supplying bins to new homes.
Charging households for bins had been “on hold” because of extra central funding to introduce twin stream collections to boost recycling. That funding has now come to an end, Mr Maule told the meeting.
The proposal coming before councillors at the end of the month is to charge households £27 for a replacement 140 litre bin and £30 for a 240 litre bin. The only exception would be where a bin is lost in a refuse vehicle at collection point.
Even households which report their bin stolen will have to pay the charge to have a new bin.
At a special meeting of the Environmental and Sustainability PDSP, Conservative councillor Alison Adamson expressed surprise at the proposal and asked for the figures.
They were contained in papers released to a meeting of Corporate Policy and Resources PDSP. The papers also show proposals to increase the cost of the brown bin garden waste permit from £52.75 to £55.75.
Other related waste management charges include the cost of bulky uplift for five items remaining at the current charge of £38.59.
Responding to another question on bin charges, from SNP councillor Veronica Smith, Mr Anderson said: “We are going to follow the model that most Scottish local authorities are going with at the moment. So there will be a charge for all bins.
“The current cost to the service is exorbitant and the amount of bins we replace on an annual basis is about 10% of the landscape, so we have to rein the costs in. All bins will be charged for apart from the red top bins for medical waste or for households that passed to rest for requiring extra bins.”
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