Rural Recycling Collections Reach End of First Rota
The new kerbside collections in the more rural parts of East Ross, Edderton, Mid Ross, the Black Isle, Inverness and Nairn reached the end of the first rota last Friday. Two new lorries and crews have been busy covering all the areas on a 4-week rota.
The collections are proving a great success with an average of around 64% of bins put out for collection overall and over 80% on some routes. Contamination of bins with the wrong items has been relatively low with glass, juice cartons and plastic other than bottles being the main culprits.
Councillor Angela MacLean expressed delight at the response to the new service: “Householders have generally shown great enthusiasm for the opportunity to recycle more items more easily. The collections are reducing the amount of material that we send to landfill sites. Some people have expressed concern at reports in the media that there is no longer a market for recycled material. I can reassure them that because the overall quality of material collected in the Highlands is high, the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) that is processing our recyclate has confirmed that there continues to be markets for this high quality material.”
The blue wheelie bins are for paper, cardboard, tin cans and plastic bottles only. Cardboard drink cartons and glass should not be placed in the bins. Householders should recycle their glass at their local recycling points. All items put in the blue bins should be loose with no plastic bags or any plastic items other than plastic bottles, without their caps.
The blue bins are collected once every four weeks so people are advised to check the dates on their calendars to ensure that they do not miss their collection.
Full details of how to use the bins are given in the booklet that was delivered with the bins.
For more information about recycling in your area visit http://www.highland.gov.uk/recycle.htm, email - recycle@highland.gov.uk. Or telephone your local service point: - Edderton area tel. 01408 622644; East Ross, Mid Ross, Black Isle areas tel. 01349 868527;
Inverness area tel. 01463 230634; and Nairn area tel. 01667 458540.