Montrose is next in line for recycling sorting station with roll-out date to be confirmed

Angus Council environmental bosses have said that plans for the roll-out of sorting stations at the county’s recycling centres are proceeding as planned.

Last year, the Forfar centre hosted the pilot project, which was designed to prevent recyclable material from general waste.

In the first set-up of its kind in Scotland, a sorting station was installed at the Queenswell Road facility, and every bag and container of general waste was checked for items which could be recycled.

The £50,000 pilot programme was funded by Zero Waste Scotland and, as a result of its success, the council announced plans to introduce the scheme Angus-wide.

The roll-out was expected to begin in July, but the local authority has said that the scheme is being implemented as planned.

A spokesperson said: “A further update on launch dates will be available shortly.”

The full rollout is expected to take around a year to complete.

The Forfar scheme delivered positive results during the five months it ran, saving 7.7 tonnes of recyclable material from the general waste skip.

This led to a 6.7% improvement in the centre’s recycling rate on the same period over the past two years.

In March this year, analysis of the general waste skips demonstrated that recyclable material in them had reduced by more than half compared to 2022/23.

The council added: “In terms of Forfar performance, we are no longer weighing materials and the requirement to sort waste is now just business as usual.

“Most site visitors are now familiar with the need to sort waste in advance.

“As would be expected, the amount of material being sorted at the sorting station has decreased through time.

“9.7 tonnes of waste was diverted from November 10 to end June when we stopped weighing.

The wider roll-out will cost the council more than £50,000, including initial costs for extra staff, but the council is confident it will be successful financially.