There are several reasons for making these changes. They come under four headings:
1. Saving money
The current system of collecting mixed recyclable materials in the grey bin, then paying for them to be separated before they can be recycled, is costly.
Collecting materials separately means we are more likely to receive income for them. This income can vary, but materials from separate collections will always be cheaper to dispose of than mixed recycling.
Also, less than half of the waste that currently goes in purple bins belongs there. The rest could have been recycled. Recyclables wrongly going in the purple bin costs the council more than one million pounds every year.
The Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund is providing £2.8 million pounds to buy the new bins and make these changes.
2. Tackling climate change
These changes will reduce waste, maximise recycling and help to tackle climate change.
This will help us meet the targets of our Transition to Net Zero Action Plan: 2022 - 2030.
3. Aligning with national policy
The accompanying Code of Practice (CoP) to the Scottish Government’s Charter for Household Recycling in Scotland requires paper and card and glass to be collected separately from other materials. We expect this to become mandatory.
Deposit Return Scheme (DRS)
Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be implemented in October 2025 at the earliest. It is expected this will place a 20p deposit on drinks containers (excluding milk).
The DRS will result in fewer high value materials (such as aluminium cans) going into household recycling bins. This will increase the cost to us of disposing of mixed recycling.
The new bin system ensures that we get the maximum financial benefit from our recyclables post-DRS.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations
These regulations will shift the cost of collecting household packaging waste from local authorities to producers. It should result in payments to local authorities from October 2025.
Payments will be dependent on materials being collected and disposed of in an efficient manner. We don't yet know the criteria for efficiency, but we expect that the higher quality recyclables collected with the new service will ensure optimum payments.
The EPR Regulations also introduce a requirement to collect flexible plastic films at the kerbside from March 2027. This doesn’t work with fully mixed recycling as it’s too difficult to separate films from paper (and glass).
Films can be put in the new grey bin mix with plastic pots and containers, cans and cartons come 2027. Until that time, please take films to a supermarket for recycling or place them in your purple bin.
4. Reducing risk
Currently, our glass, cans, paper, card and plastic recycling is fully mixed. We send this mixed recycling to a supplier who sorts it and sends it to various processors for recycling.
We risk lower or no EPR payments because of the reduction in quality of recyclable materials when they are mixed together.
Also, the number of suppliers who can sort mixed recycling is limited. If a supplier's facility closed, it could be difficult to find alternative disposal routes.