News Roundup 
Scotland’s Recycling Reality Check
The Scottish Government has released a new report on waste reprocessing infrastructure, outlining how 15 key material streams are managed. While food waste and some streams are recycled locally, much of Scotland’s “recycling” is simply bulked up and sent elsewhere. Alasdair highlights the need for clearer stats that separate what’s prepared for recycling versus what’s actually recycled here at home. That gap shows both a challenge and an opportunity for Scotland’s circular economy.
Violence Against Waste Workers on the Rise
A report from SUEZ has revealed a 42% increase in violence and abuse towards waste workers. Sadly, it’s an all-too-common issue, with frontline staff facing hostility from the public. Through SWITCH, Alasdair has been involved in promoting training and awareness around this — and stresses that abuse is never acceptable. You can find useful SWITCH resources here: SWITCH Aggression Resources.
Kingussie High Leads on Reuse
A brighter story comes from Kingussie High School, where pupils are set to ditch single-use lunch packaging in favour of reusable containers. With packaging making up around 9% of their waste, this is a practical step towards reducing school waste footprints — and perhaps proof they’ve been listening to our recent episodes on reduction and reuse!
Local Sustainability vs. Big Business
Former guest from Episode 61, Bryce Cunningham of Mossgiel Dairy, has lost his East Ayrshire Council milk contract to multinational Muller. Bryce had been supplying organic, locally sourced milk in bulk — cutting down packaging waste and keeping value in the local economy. His frustration highlights a bigger issue: when public procurement focuses narrowly on cost, the wider social and environmental benefits of local suppliers can be overlooked.
A Dog with a Nose for Litter
And finally, a heartwarming tale. “Little Logie,” a black Labrador from Plymouth, has been trained to collect bottles, cans, and other rubbish on his walks, helping clean up the coast. If a dog can do it, surely we can all manage to take our litter home. You can even follow his clean-up adventures on Instagram!
Topic: Recycle the Waste You Produce ♻️
This week, Alasdair and Jane move on to the third stage of the waste hierarchy: recycling. While often seen as the go-to environmental solution, recycling actually comes after reduce and reuse — and only works well when it’s done properly.
The hosts highlight a common issue: confusion about what can and can’t be recycled. Almost anything can be recycled in theory, but without the right collection systems and clean material streams, it’s rarely viable. Coffee cups, soft plastics, and contaminated packaging are big culprits, while “wish cycling” (putting the wrong things in the bin in hope) only makes things worse.
High-value recycling happens when glass bottles or clean cardboard become the same product again. But too often, plastics are “downcycled” into lower-value items because we can’t separate them well enough. Contamination is a major problem too — around 20% of UK household recycling is spoiled before processing.
Financial realities matter: landfill tax at £126 per tonne drives recycling, but virgin materials often undercut recycled ones. Better markets for recycled content are essential. Meanwhile, simple habits — rinsing containers, separating films from boxes, and tearing up greasy pizza boxes — make a huge difference to quality.
Food waste is also classed as recycling when composted, but only 20% of Scots use their bins. Maggot fears are more about poor segregation than the system itself.
Finally, UK stats show Scotland at just 42.1% recycling, lagging behind England (44%), Northern Ireland (50.2%) and Wales (57%). With such a strong collection system, Alasdair argues Scotland should be leading — but without better public engagement, it won’t catch up.
The takeaway? Clean, separated materials mean stronger markets, lower costs, and a system that works for everyone.
Rubbish Rant: Bin Wars & Salary Bands 🗑️
This week’s episode came with not one, but two rants.
The first was sparked by Alasdair’s early-morning beach walk, where he found the place strewn with litter after a sunny weekend. Jane added her own story of “Bin Wars” in Eaglesham, where residents complained about overflowing council bins on Facebook — despite plenty of empty ones just yards away. Her response was simple: take responsibility for your own waste.
Later in the episode, Alasdair turned to a more political rant. He flagged a new job ad from Zero Waste Scotland: Circular Economy Behaviour Change Analyst — with a salary band of £52–56k. By comparison, local authority depot managers overseeing 100+ staff earn about the same. His point wasn’t that the analyst role isn’t valuable, but that frontline workers often face abuse, health and safety challenges, and huge responsibility without equal recognition. For him, it highlighted how out of sync the system can feel between policy-level jobs and the tough, practical realities of waste management.
Takeaway: We all need to take ownership of our rubbish — and maybe rethink how we value the people doing the hardest work in the waste sector.
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