Review of Recycling Centres in Highland

24th February 2014

The Highland Council’s recycling team is reviewing the operation of its network of 21 recycling centres to encourage the public to make a bigger effort to separate waste that can be recycled from waste that cannot.

The Council wants to increase the amount of material recycled and at the same time reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

The amount of non-recyclable (residual) waste collected at recycling centres is rising despite all households throughout Highland having access to kerbside recycling services through the alternate weekly collection; the bulky uplift service being available to over 98% of households in Highland; and over 98% of households living within a few miles of a recycling point.

To tackle this increase, a programme of improvement at all recycling centres has been. These are:-

· A pilot programme is to be introduced at Alness Recycling Centre to examine a range of ways in which the Council can identify and then eliminate the deposit of commercial waste;

· The introduction of specific times/days for the deposit of waste by vans and trailers to ease congestion and “skip blocking”;

· The introduction of an inspection system to ensure that residual waste brought to the site does not contain recyclable waste;

· The re-organisation of sites to increase the provision (space permitting) of recyclable containers and of materials which can be recycled;

· An application to Zero Waste Scotland has been made to examine alternative ways to engage with the public and improve segregation of recyclable materials.

This programme will commence in April.

Councillor Graham Phillips, Chairman of the Council’s TEC Services Committee, said: “We have made great strides forward with recycling over the past decade and we want to maintain the momentum. We have the infrastructure in place and now we need to make some slight changes to the way we run our recycling centres to encourage the public to do more to separate their waste before they get there. Our aim is to increase the recyclable material deposited at our centres and reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill.”