Big Recycle Scotland Week
National recycling week, known in Scotland as the BIG Recycle for Scotland, kicks off today (Monday 27 June) to raise awareness of what, where, how and why to recycle.
The Highland Council has been extremely busy over the last few months making major improvements to the recycling facilities throughout the region. The council has introduced kerbside recycling collections, new Recycling Centres, and is expanding the network of Recycling Points across the Highlands. These improvements have been made to make it as easy as possible for householders in the Highlands to recycle more of their household waste and help towards achieving the Council’s recycling target of 18% by 2006.
Kerbside Recycling
Kerbside recycling collections have been introduced in 3 Phases to approximately 46,000 households across the Highland Council region. As part of the scheme householders are provided with a blue box to sort paper and cans and a brown wheeled bin to separate garden waste.
The first phase of the new kerbside recycling collections started in April this year to 18,000 households in Nairn, Thurso, Wick and East Inverness. Since the start of the scheme, approximately 228 tonnes of paper has been collected for recycling and an impressive 766 tonnes of garden waste has been collected showing that householders in these areas have welcomed the new recycling service provided by the council.
The second phase of the Kerbside recycling collection was introduced at the end of May and included 25,000 households in Fort William, Ross-Shire and further areas in Inverness. On the first day of the new collections a record amount of paper, 4.5 tonnes was collected from the Fort William area alone.
The final phase of the kerbside recycling collections for 2005 is expected to start in July and will include 5,500 households in the Badenoch and Strathspey area.
Recycling Centres & Points
Residents in the Wick area have welcomed the opening of a new Recycling Centre in the town in April 2005. The Recycling Centre accepts cans, car batteries, cardboard, electrical appliances, engine oil, garden waste, glass bottles and jars, paper, rubble, textiles, tyres and white goods.
The Recycling Centre in Inverness has also been improved to include extra skips and containers. The site now has a new entrance and has doubled in size, which has greatly improved access through the site. The Council is also pleased to announce that four new Recycling Centres are scheduled to be opened in Fort William, Nairn, Dingwall and Thurso over the next few months.
It is hoped that 60% of the waste that is taken to the Recycling Centres will be recycled and add 2.5% to the Council’s recycling target.
The network of Recycling Points in the Highlands is also being expanded from 140 sites, most of which currently only accept glass, to 190 sites that accept paper, cans, glass and textiles. New paper and can banks are expected to be placed at Recycling Points from July.
Information on the location and opening hours of all the recycling sitesFor more information about kerbside recycling or Recycling Centres & Points, call 01349 868630 or email: recycle@highland.gov.uk
Are you a recycling champion?
As part of the BIG Recycle for Scotland, The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) is looking to identify people all over Scotland who recycle as much as they can. If you think you, or someone you know is a recycling champion, no matter how big or small the recycling contribution, send an email to laura.smith@ksbscotland.org.uk or call 01786 468246.