Rubbish claims over Cairngorms’ waste going up in smoke answered by Highland Council
Highland Council has spelled out what happens to waste collected in the strath after online controversy about local domestic waste being burnt.
Kingussie businessman Ruaridh Ormiston had posted: “Who was aware that all our domestic waste gets trucked to East Lothian to be burnt 163 miles away…
“How can the Cairngorms National Park Authority allow this to go on below their noses whilst shouting about net zero and climate change?
“They allow all of this carbon to go up in smoke into the atmosphere without attempting to recycle it.”
Rachel Avery, from Badenoch Climate Action, had taken the matter forward with the council to get some clarity after the discussion in the community forum generated a fair bit of heat.
Alan McKinnie, Strategic Lead (Waste Strategy and Operations) at Highland Council, said: “The council are delivering non-recycling waste (new grey bin) only to Viridor’s Energy from Waste facility in Dunbar in East Lothian.
“Viridor process the waste, using it to generate electricity which is exported onto the National Grid.
“Importantly this enables the council to cease landfilling and fully comply with a ban on biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill by 31 December 2025.
Ms Avery said: "It's good to have confirmation that the contents of our domestic blue and green recycling bins is processed into recycled products that go back into the supply chain, and that our non-recyclable materials go to make electricity that supplies the national grid.
“It’s obviously important that each of us use the new bins and separate out as much of our waste as possible for recycling.
“It’s also pretty clear that once waste of any kind is in our home, there's no silver bullet for how best to deal with it.
“Every option has implications in terms of energy used or toxins released.
“The best thing is try as much as we can to reduce the amount of waste we're producing as a household in the first place, so buying less 'stuff' especially low quality stuff that doesn't last, and trying to avoid buying highly packaged items."
What happens with the waste that goes into our recycling bins?
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For mixed plastic and metal containers (green bin).
The council has a new contract in place with Wyllie Recycling Ltd. Wyllies collect the mixed plastic and metal containers from council waste transfer stations and transport to their materials recovery facility in Perth which is specifically designed to sort and separate the mixed plastic and metal containers into various material streams.
The separated materials such as aluminium, steel and HDPE plastic and PET plastic are baled and then transported to UK manufacturers and made into new containers.
The clear HDPE plastic is used to make new milk bottles and clear PET plastic is used to make new water bottles, all within the UK.
For mixed paper and card (blue bin)
Highland Council has a new contract in place with Smurfit Westrock.
Paper and card is transported from Highland Council waste transfer stations to Smurfit Westrock’s Glasgow recycling facility.
The mixed paper and card is graded and baled at the Glasgow facility.
The baled material is then transported to Smurfit Westrock’s two recycling paper mills within the UK for processing into brown paper reels - these are then distributed to their 32 packaging plants and manufactured into new high quality consumer packaging products.
