Monday June 1st 2026
Councillor Dianne Alexander gets a demonstration from recycling staff as the first of Midlothian's new green bins arrive. Pictured left to right: Robert Dickson, Recycling Driver; Andrew Walker, Recycling Team Leader; Lindy Rose, Recycling Collector; Cllr Dianne Alexander; Willie Reid Recycling Operational/Contracts Manager.
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
A £2.2million project to improve recycling in Midlothian has been reported as a success among local residents with more requests for additional bins being made.
A report to the council’s administration cabinet this week reveals the introduction of 46,000 green recycling bins just for paper, card and cardboard in March has already seen contamination levels in the materials thrown out at an impressive five per cent.
And it says the majority of people living in the county have embraced the new system which separates the paper and cardboard from the plastic and cans that where previously placed in a mixed recycling bin by households.
The report says the project is a major initiative aimed at improving recycling services for residents and introduced the additional green recycling bin for every household.
The 240-litres bins moved to a three weekly collection cycle alongside the plastic and cans bins and regular household waste.
Glass and food collections remained on the original collection frequency, and the report said since introducing the new green bins they have seen an increase in requests for glass collection boxes and food caddies.
It says: “The aim of the initiative is to reduce residual waste and increase
recycling to achieve environmental and financial benefits.
“While there were a number of operational challenges during implementation, the majority of residents have embraced the new service changes and early indications are that there has been a decrease in residual waste and an increase in recycling.
“Monitoring of contamination levels are taking place and initial figures show that the contamination level in the new green bin was around 5%, which is an achievement so early on in the new collection cycle.”
The revised arrangements which has been supported with a £2.2million grant from Zero Waste Scotland aims to improve the quality of recycling and make collections more efficient by cutting the amount of material coming into contact with food residue – which often cannot then be reused.
Separating paper and card from plastics and cans will also allow further sorting to take place, which means that a greater variety of packaging types can be recycled correctly.
This means that an increased volume of waste recovered through household recycling in Midlothian can be sent on for processing, which is more economically and environmentally sustainable for everyone.
Additional changes coming to the waste services collections next year include the introduction of plastic film kerbside collections with local authorities required to collect recyclable plastic film and flexible packaging from households.
The report to councillors also warns that the expected introduced of the Deposit Return Scheme in October next year could impact the amount of single use drink containers left kerbside.
Cabinet members are asked to note the report.
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