As Aberdeenshire Council looks at a major £4 million shake-up to its waste services, changing from a two-week cycle to a three-week cycle, here’s how bin collection services work in the other council areas across the north-east and north of Scotland.
Aberdeen
In Aberdeen, residents have a number of ways they can dispose of their waste with household bin collections depending on where they live.
Black mixed recycling bins are collected fortnightly, as are brown food and garden bins.
Black general waste bins are collected fortnightly too, but not on the same days as the black mixed recycling bins and brown food and garden bins.
Communal food bins are available in some areas for food waste, as are communal mixed recycling bins.
You can check your bin collection days in Aberdeen here.
Moray
In Moray, residents have a number of bins for different kinds of waste.
They have green bins for non-recyclables.
Blue bins are for newspapers, magazines, cardboard and more.
Purple bins are for drinks cans, plastic bottles, plastic containers, and other similar items.
An orange tub is used for glass bottles and jars, and a brown bin is used for garden and kitchen waste.
The green bins for waste that can’t be recycled is collected once every three weeks.
Brown bins are every fortnight.
The blue, orange and purple bins are collected every three weeks.
You can find your bin collection day in Moray here.
Highland Council
The Highland Council has four bins available for residents.
Its blue recycling bins take cartons, mixed paper, cardboard, food tins, drink cans, aerosols, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays.
They are collected fortnightly.
Highland residents also get their green household waste bins collected fortnightly, but not on the same days as they get their recycling picked up.
Food waste caddies are available for Inverness residents only.
Brown garden waste bins are also available for some residents at a cost, but the usual fortnightly collections for this service has stopped for the winter, and will resume on March 1.
You can find more information on bin collections from the Highland Council here.
Orkney
In Orkney, every household gets one grey refuse bin and two green recycling bins.
They are collected on an alternate weekly cycle, so grey bins are picked up one week, and recyclables in green bins and boxes the next.
You can find when your bins are picked up in Orkney here.
Shetland
In Shetland, the system is a mixture of bins and bags.
The blue-lidded bin is for paper and cardboard only and is collected every three weeks.
The grey-lidded bin is for plastic bottles, cans and juice cartons, though plastic tubs, pots and trays are not accepted. This is also collected once every three weeks.
Residents also have a reusable purple bag which is for collecting glass to take to the local bottle bank as this is not collected kerbside.
Non-recyclable rubbish is placed into black bags which are collected. Having a physical wheelie bin for rubbish is an opt-in scheme where there is a fee to be paid by the resident.
Non-recyclable rubbish is collected every fortnight.
You can find when your bins are collected in Shetland here.
Western Isles
In the Western Isles, there are four bins for residents to navigate.
Most recently introduced was the blue mixed recycling bin which takes everything from plastic bottles and tubs to paper, card and even knives, forks and saucepans.
Residents of the Western Isles have a second recycling bin reserved strictly for glass.
A third bin is for organic waste only. This includes food and garden waste.
The fourth and final bin is the non-recyclable wheelie bin for any leftover rubbish to be sent to landfill.
Both the blue and green bins are collected once every four weeks, while the organic bin and non-recyclable waste is collected every fortnight.
More information on bin collections in the Western Isles can be found here and here.
Argyll and Bute
Argyll and Bute residents only have two bins to deal with.
One is a green bin which is for general rubbish that cannot be recycled. This is collected once every three weeks.
The other is a blue bin for paper, card, plastic and cans. In some areas, this bin takes the form of a blue bag.
This is collected every two weeks.
Glass cannot be recycled by kerbside services in this region and instead must be taken to recycling centres.
Argyll and Bute bin collection information can be found here.
