Use: Immediate                                                                     Issue Date: Wednesday 9 March 2005

The Highland Council is gearing up for launch new kerbside collections of paper, cans and garden waste to 5,600 households in Balloch, Culloden, Smithton and Westhill, making it much easier for residents to recycle their household waste from their own front door.

The service, which starts on the week commencing 4 April, is one of five kerbside collection schemes which will be rolled out to over 42,000 throughout the Highlands in the next couple of months.

New vehicles have been purchased to allow collections on a fortnightly basis. One week, homes will receive a collection of garden waste and the following week a collection of paper and cans. Each household will be supplied with an additional brown wheelie bin for their garden waste and a blue box for their paper and cans. The normal refuse collection will be unaffected.

Residents along the new routes have already received leaflets providing information about the items that can be recycled and over the next few weeks their new collection boxes and bins will be delivered.

In June another collection route for the Inverness Area will be launched to a further 9,000 houses. This is on top of the collections already running in the Scourguie/Kinmylies and Beauly areas. By the start of the summer a total of 17,000 households in the Inverness Area will have Kerbside Collections.

Work on upgrading the Recycling Centre on Henderson Drive is well under way and due to be completed in early April. The original site has been doubled allowing for more space for compaction skips to take garden waste, paper, cardboard, glass bottles, tins, cans, textiles, waste engine oil, car batteries, tyres and scrap metal. There will also be new facilities for the collection of wood, electrical appliances and reuse items, such as furniture and bric-a-brac.

For more information about recycling in the Inverness Area please telephone 01463 230634, visit www.highland.gov.uk or Email - recycle@highland.gov.uk