News

Banchory and Mid Deeside Councillor, Jill Webster, is encouraging residents to reduce waste and recycle as much as possible.

Councillor Webster said, “Dumping Waste to landfill leads to environmental damage, is hugely expensive and is an unnecessary waste of resources. Did you know, for example that making a new aluminium can from recyclable material uses 95% less energy than a can created from the raw resources? Although we would all like to reduce the amount of waste generated in the first place, I am very keen to encourage as much recycling as possible.

The Council is offering free additional recycling boxes and bags to supplement capacity at the kerbside recyclate  collections or to store materials in before taking them to recycling points and these can be obtained by calling Wasteline on 0845 600 3 900.

In addition you can get hugely subsidised home composters, which you can use to dispose of garden and other compostable waste and benefit your garden at the same time. An 800 litre capacity composter can be bought from the council for just £35, while a 320 litre capacity bin is just £20. Again, phone the Wasteline or visit www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/waste/index.asp. It will even be delivered to you so it is very easy and the website gives you handy tips.

Don’t forget the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) at the Crows Nest can accept a huge range of materials and is useful for a lot more than you might think.

As well as your old fridge or TV, smaller electrical goods such as kettles, irons and hairdryers are also accepted and the metals and plastics from them are recycled as far as possible.

If you bring it along, wood can be shredded and composted, made into chipboard or fuel pellets (please remove nails and screws if possible). Scrap metal is also accepted.

Cooking oil is collected in large yellow plastic containers and sent for processing into biodiesel. Even the glycerol by-product is used to make organic soap.

And the HWRC is a safe place to dispose of items that can’t go in your bin. These include batteries of all sizes, refillable gas canisters (if you are unable to return them to the supplier) and gas discharge lamps, including fluorescent tubes and low-energy light bulbs. 

And as part of The Magpie project there are Reuse containers for items that are too good to throw away and can be used again. They are sold to raise funds for charity in the Boxroom or used directly for those in need.

Please place items such as furniture, toys, house and garden equipment or bric-a-brac in the specially-marked Reuse containers at the site if you want to help the Boxroom and reduce your household waste at the same time.

So please give us a hand by doing your bit. At present we only recycle 33% and we have a long way to go to achieve our target of 70% recycling by 2025. Thank you.”

Councillor Jill Webster, Banchory and Mid Deeside, Tel 01330 825615