NORTH Ayrshire’s recycling materials are sent to contractors in North Lanarkshire and Northern Ireland, cabinet member for place Scott Davidson revealed at a recent full council meeting.

Responding to a question from Arran Councillor Timothy Billings, he revealed that the blue bin mainland – domestic paper and card – goes to Saica Natur in Croy while purple bin mainland – domestic glass, cans, plastic and cartons - goes to Levenseat by Forth, Lanark.

Brown bin mainland – domestic, commercial garden and food waste – is sent to Enva in Blantyre.

Blue bin Arran/commercial – paper, card, glass, cans, plastic and cartons - goes to Regen Waste Ltd in Newry, Co Down, Northern Ireland.

One-hundred per cent of the waste sent for recycling is initially processed in the UK by the council’s recycling contractors.

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During the 2021 calendar year, 3833.19 tonnes (13.9 per cent) of the waste separated by NAC recycling processors was then sent or sold by them to outside the UK.

This is broken down as follows: metal cans 68.72 tonnes; mixed plastics 110.97t; refuse derived fuel (rdf) 333.8t; glass 2518,59t; paper/cardboard 801.11t; total 3833.19T.

During the calendar year 2021, 90.14 per cent of the kerbside recyclable waste collected was recycled or diverted from landfill/disposals.

The majority of the remaining 9.86 per cent of contamination/non-recyclables being disposed of as a refuse derived fuel for incineration (9.68 per cent and a small proportion (0.18 pc)) needing to be landfilled, according to the council statement.