Christmas shoppers encouraged to ‘recycle on the go’

A government-funded project designed to help Scotland achieve high recycling rates is asking Christmas shoppers to embrace the scheme.

A number of ‘Recycle-On-The-Go’ bins, which have separate cavities for the disposal of plastics, paper and cans, have been placed in a number of high footfall areas, such as shopping centres and train stations.  

The initiative is encouraging shoppers to recycle waste whilst they have access to the bins, as opposed to taking waste home where it might end up in general waste bins, in order to help Scotland work towards a zero waste society.

“Having proper recycling bins in our towns and cities is a great incentive to make people view recycling as the norm, and hopefully it will become second nature to everyone to dispose of their recyclable materials properly,” commented Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment.

Zero Waste Scotland and RECOUP, a UK authority on plastics recycling, recently revisited and refreshed a number of the bins, including those which are in place at three major locations; Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh, St Enoch Centre and the SECC in Glasgow.

“Providing recycling facilities in popular public locations will help Scotland achieve a higher recycling rate and bring financial benefits. It is estimated that achieving a 70 percent recycling rate by 2025 could boost Scotland’s economy by around £178million,” commented Iain Gulland, Chief Executive, Zero Waste Scotland.