Kerbside Battery Collection Plans Announced

Kerbside collections to recycle household batteriesare to be introduced for people across Dumfries and Galloway.

At its meeting on 6 February, members of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Communities Committee will consider a report that includes details of the proposals following the announcement that Dumfries and Galloway Council has been successful in securing £70,000 of funding from Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund to implement a kerbside battery recycling service.

The new kerbside service will involve all types of household batteries – including the ones from toys, laptops, mobile phones, watches and hearing aids – being separated from regular waste.

Chair of the council’s Communities Committee, Ian Blake, said: “Implementing a kerbside collection of household batteries will increase our recycling rates of valuable materials while also reducing the risk of fires within in our refuse collection vehicles and waste processing facilities.”

Vice Chair of Communities Committee, Jackie McCamon, added: “We have seen the householders of Dumfries and Galloway embrace the kerbside recycling service, with recycling rates increasing from 30.1% in 2020 to 45.1% in 2022. I am confident that our residents will engage equally as well with this new service that will be starting in April of this year.”

The Scottish Governments Circular Economy Minister, Lorna Slater, said: “Recycling has a huge role to play in Scotland’s response to the climate crisis. Since launching in 2021, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have benefitted from projects supported through our £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund – one of the biggest investments in a generation to modernise recycling in Scotland.

“I am delighted that this latest round of funding will make it easier for many more households across Scotland to recycle their waste, boosting local recycling rates.”

Each household across the region will receive more information in the spring, detailing how the scheme will work and when to start presenting batteries for recycling.

For more information on the council’s waste collection service, visit: www.dumgal.gov.uk/wasterecycling