All Recycling and Reuse pages can be accessed from the 'More pages in this section' menu.
Orkney Islands Council provides a variety of ways for residents and businesses to recycle waste. More information on local facilities can be found in this section and by viewing the document 'What to Recycle', available from 'Related Downloads' section of this page.
Recycling as much material as possible is so important for many reasons including:
The 'Where Does Our Recycling Go?' document available from the #Related Downloads' section of this page gives details, destinations and examples of final use of the recycling collected from our household waste recycling centres and from domestic and commercial properties.
The 'Recycle for Scotland' website is a fantastic resource for finding out information on recycling, with advice on how to reduce the amount of waste you produce, how to reuse household items instead of throwing them out. A link to this website can be found under the 'Related Sites' section.
To find out about more recycling figures, visit the Defra website, available from the 'Related Sites' section of this page. Once on the site, select 'The Environment' and then 'Waste and Recycling' for information on recycling.
Orkney is the centre for a pilot of some of the logistical aspects of the Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Due to come into effect in August 2023, the DRS scheme is aimed at increasing capture of single use drinks containers around the country, through a network of return points.
As part of the Return & Recycle Orkney pilot, Orkney is hosting a ‘Reverse Vending Machine’, based at Restart Orkney in Kirkwall – containers deposited in this machine during the pilot will generate 5p towards a local charity. (Milk bottles are not accepted).
The final scheme will see anyone who sells drinks containers obliged to accept empty bottles and return the 20p deposit paid at the point of sale to the consumer.
The Council is assisting the Return & Recycle Orkney pilot by providing storage for collected containers. At this stage we are awaiting the outcome of the pilot and details of the final scheme, due to launch in August 2023. You can find out more about the ‘Return & Recycle Orkney’ pilot, and the intended full DRS scheme, at the following links: