Use: Immediate                                                                                 Issue Date: Thursday 12 May 2005

The improvements to the Recycling Centre on Henderson Drive in Inverness are now complete and the new Centre is now open. The site, which has doubled in size to improve the traffic flow, has a new entrance and the number of skips and containers have been increased to allow householders to recycle more of their household waste.

Local firm, Highland Quality Construction, were contracted by The Highland Council to build the £¼ million new facility which took twelve weeks to complete and was paid for by an allocation from the Scottish Strategic Waste Fund.

Householders will now be able to take their cans, car batteries, cardboard, engine oil, garden waste, paper, rubble and soil, scrap metal, textiles, tyres and white goods to the Recycling Centre where separate skips and containers will be available for the material to be recycled.

Councillor Bill Fulton, Depute Chairman of TEC Services with responsibility for waste said: "The City of Inverness now has a Recycling Centre it can be proud of. A wider range of waste materials can be dealt with and the extra area will make it much easier for drivers to enter and exit the site. I would like to thank everyone for their patience during the refurbishment and hope as many people as possible take advantage of this new excellent facility."

Anyone coming to the Recycling Centre will be met at the entrance by an operative who will direct them to the correct containers. The Council is advising people to separate their waste before they arrive. The Recycling Centre is now open daily from 9.30am to 8.00pm.

Additionally, Inverness householders in Culloden, Smithton and Balloch who are taking part in the Council’s new Kerbside recycling initiatives have hit the target with their great recycling efforts. Since the launch of the new collections on 4 April 2005, approximately 150 tonnes of garden waste, over 25 tonnes of paper and 2 tonnes of food and drinks cans have been collected.

Inverness Area TEC Services Chairman, Councillor David Munro said: "The new Kerbsider collections have proved to be very popular. More new routes are being introduced at the beginning of June in Drakies, Hilton, Lochardil, Drummond, Dalneigh and parts of Merkinch.

The efforts of housholders will help us to reach our challenging recycling and composting target of 18% by April 2006."

Residents are reminded that cardboard cannot be accepted in the blue boxes which are only for paper and cans and that plastic bags should not be placed into the brown bins which are only for garden waste.

For more information about recycling visit www.highland.gov.uk or email recycle@highland.gov.uk.

ENDS