Moray Council is looking to build a new household waste recycling centre in Elgin.
A total of £800,000 has been agreed in the capital budget to buy land for a site in or close to the town.
Officers are preparing to submit an application to the Scottish Government Recycling Improvement Fund for additional costs.
The aim is to replace the existing household waste recycling centre at Chanonry.
The current centre is cramped and those using it have to book slots online so staff can manage traffic safely.
The new site will be run on the ethos to reuse items before recycling them.
A third sector organisation will be sought to operate a service where people can drop off furniture, household goods and other items that can be sold on.
A similar operation is run by social enterprise Waste Busters at the recycling centre in Forres.
Head of environmental and commercial services Stephen Cooper told a meeting of the economic development and infrastructure committee that an opportunity had arisen to apply for funding for the project.
He said: “We have a very constrained site in Elgin and we’ve been looking for a new site for some time.
“We had to come up with something innovative, so the concept is a waste hierarchy approach.
“As you enter the new site the idea is you would drop off all your waste that could potentially be reused or upcycled, and we’d get the third sector to operate that section of it.
“You would then move into an area where you would recycle, then finally you would end up with waste that couldn’t be reused or recycled for disposal.
“So it’s thinking about that waste hierarchy and that journey someone would have to take.”
‘Innovative’ approach to reducing waste in Elgin
Committee chairman Graham Leadbitter welcomed the proposal.
He said: “We have a number of excellent social enterprises that operate in Moray, and some of them would lend themselves really well to being able to operate in tandem with the council on a site of that type.
“I’m personally quite excited by this, as I can see the way the site operates in Forres is exceptionally good and really lends itself for the reuse of objects.
“If we can get that for our largest body of waste that would really help.”
The submission for funding is expected to be made in June, and if successful design work will start later this year.
