Date Published: 29 May 2023

Across six months, Aberdeenshire Council recovered old-style diamond lift-bins
from the two remaining areas using them in the region—Marr and Kincardine &
Mearns—and replaced them with industry-standard comb-lift bins.

All household waste and recycling bins in Aberdeenshire are now standard
comb-lift bins, making all collection vehicles compatible with any bin anywhere
in Aberdeenshire, allowing for efficiencies in vehicle usage and routing.


At the time of replacement, Aberdeenshire Council was the only local authority
in Scotland still using diamond bins. This meant that sourcing replacements was
increasingly difficult and far more expensive than the industry standard
comb-lift bins used in the rest of the Shire.



The Stonehaven depot has also recently made the switch to three weekly
collections. As a result, the vast majority of Kincardine & Mearns should no
longer be using the blue-lid recycling bin for mixed recycling and instead
should use it for paper, card, and cardboard only.



Residents can check when to put their bins out via our online postcode checker
[https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/Apps/Waste-Collections/].



After a switch to the three-weekly collection cycle in an area, any blue-lid
bins that continue to be used for mixed recycling will need to be rejected by
collection crews.



Kincardine & Mearns is the first area for the full rollout of a new kerbside
collection cycle. The new orange-lid bins—in the comb-lift style—continue to
make their way to households and trade customers across all of Aberdeenshire.



The redundant diamond-lift bins were sent to Bright Green Plastic, part of IPL
UK—a company offering a closed-loop recycling solution to shred, granulate,
re-formulate, wash, and create a clean polymer from the recovered resource that
was ultimately used in the making of the new orange lid bins.



As the new kerbside collection changes roll out across Aberdeenshire, households
should be on the lookout for a teaser postcard that will indicate that the
change will soon apply to their home. A letter will follow that includes a new
service booklet with everything residents need to know about the changes,
including when to expect delivery and when to start using their new orange-lid
bin.


Orange lid bins are for tins, cans, foil, aerosols, food and drinks cartons as
well as plastic bottles, pots, tubs, and trays. The blue lid bin will then
become for paper and card only.


From Monday 29 May, orange lid bins will also begin to be delivered to some
households and trade customers in the Marr area: specifically, Deeside from
Banchory to Braemar and some of the surrounding area.


The council is asking that the households seeking additional orange lid bins
allow time for the service to settle in before making their request for another.
This is to ensure that the maximum capacity of the bin is used and that
additional bins are not wastefully allocated.



Aberdeenshire Council welcomed £3.4 million in funding from the Scottish
Government's Recycling Improvement Fund to progress the new waste strategy in
alignment with Scotland's Charter for Household Recycling.

In 2018, 21% of Scotland's waste was from households. However, household waste
generally includes materials with higher carbon content such as food, paper, and
plastics when compared to construction, demolition, commercial, or industrial
waste. As such, household excess actually accounted for 55% of the nation's
carbon emissions from waste in 2018.

There has been little change in recycling rates across Aberdeenshire in five
years, meaning a shift needs to happen to help everyone play their part in
reducing our impact on the environment.



More information on the changes to kerbside collections rolling out across
Aberdeenshire [http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/bincollectionschange] can be
found on Aberdeenshire Council's website.



You can also watch a video with Waste Manager Ros Baxter explaining the new
collection cycle via Yammer
[https://web.yammer.com/main/threads/eyJfdHlwZSI6IlRocmVhZCIsImlkIjoiMjI4ODMwMjA0MzA0NTg4OCJ9].