Any coloured glass bottles and jars now accepted at Highland Council recycling points
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All glass banks at recycling points across the Highland Council area are now accepting any coloured glass bottles and jars – making recycling much easier for the public, according to the local authority.
Viridor, the council’s glass recycling contractor, operates a state-of-the-art facility in North Lanarkshire where the mixed glass will be processed. The plant accepts all coloured glass bottles and jars for processing by sorting the mixed glass items back into their original colours and rejecting any contamination.
The recycled glass material is then transformed into high-quality finished products for the food, beverage and pharmaceuticals industries.
Councillor Allan Henderson, chairman of Highland Council’s communities and place committee, said: “Highland Council is fortunate to be able to send glass bottles and jars to this impressive facility, which removes the need for the public to colour segregate their glass.
“Mixed glass recycling is going to be of great benefit to the council and the public. It will be much quicker and easier to recycle glass and it will improve the efficiency of collecting the material, meaning we will no longer see one bank full to overflowing and another next to it partly empty.
"We also hope to see a reduction in the public leaving bags of glass at the recycling points due to one particular colour bank being full.”
Councillor Henderson added: “Glass can be endlessly recycled without any loss of quality – the true meaning of closed-loop recycling which supports the circular economy in Scotland.
"Last year around 6000 tonnes of glass bottles and jars were collected from the 200 recycling points in Highland and successfully recycled. We have an excellent track record in Highland with members of the public recycling their glass bottles and jars this new change can hopefully mean we can recycle even more.”
The new system of mixed glass recycling is available to use now. People are encouraged to use all the glass banks at recycling points for all colours of bottles and jars.
New stickers will be put on the glass banks explaining all are mixed glass recycling. The glass banks are for bottles and jars; items such as Pyrex, window glass or sheet glass are not accepted at the glass banks.
