Glaswegians encouraged to get involved in a "WEEE" recycling pilot

Heriot-Watt University is encouraging local residents in East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire to get involved in a “WEEE” recycling project.

The unique pilot will see the University work with the Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing, Menzies and CCL (North) to encourage more people to recycle their small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment - also known as WEEE.

“We’d like to encourage everyone in the local area to help us with this recycling pilot project."

In Scotland alone, over 135,500 tonnes of WEEE waste is chucked out each year and recycling rates for small electrical items are much lower than larger items such as fridges, washing machines and televisions.

Now the ten week scheme will bring electrical collection points closer to local communities and produce data to help councils deal with the vast amounts of small electronic waste thrown into wheelie bins and landfill.

Professor Umit Bititci added:  “Heriot-Watt aims to evaluate whether Menzies Distribution’s existing logistics could be leveraged to create a sustainable reverse logistics network for the collection of small household WEEE to supply to local remanufacturing companies for reuse activities.

"In order to generate data from the project, it is dependent on the public using the WEEE collection service.”

Jim Ross, leading the project for Menzies Distribution said: “Our business has been working on sustainability initiatives and in partnership with Heriot-Watt for a number of years. We’re excited by the potential it has to improve recycling rates, especially since there is no associated increase in emissions – our vans already visit the stores every day.”

Alison Gallacher from CCL (North) said: “We’re committed to increasing the reuse and recycling of WEEE. Our aim is to encourage people to recycle more of their small household items and stop them storing it or binning it. By partnering on this project, we are providing a local, convenient recycling option for householders. We have excellent reuse and recycling capabilities here in Scotland and we need to promote and raise people’s awareness of their existence.”

List of local shops involved in this study:

• Martin's Newsagents, 44 Succoth Street, Anniesland, Glasgow G13 1DF
• Bearsden Local, 58 Westbourne Crescent, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 4HE
• Mosshead Stores, 4 Mosshead Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 3EP
• Stonedyke Post Office, 143 Sped Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1LF       
• Drumchapel Groceries, 16 Rozell Avenue, Drumchapel, Glasgow G15 7QR
• Frankies, 68/70 Braidhilm Road, Giffnock, Glasgow G46 6ED
• Para Para, 5 Eaglesham Rd, Clarkston, Glasgow G76 7BU
• Williamwood Dairy, 33 -35 Eastwoodmains Road, Glasgow G46 6PW
• Coia Newsagent, 39 Douglas Street, Milngavie, Glasgow G62 6PE
• Londis Milngavie, 34 Craigash Road, Milngavie, Glasgow G62 7BP
• Browns Newsagent, 49 Ashmore Road, Merrylee, Glasgow G43 2LS
• Muirend News, 527 Clarkston Road, Muirend, Glasgow G44 3PN