Zero Waste Scotland’s new guide: Making Reuse Happen at Household Waste Recycling Centres

In this blog, Zero Waste Scotland explains the themes of their recently released new guide for local authorities: Making Reuse Happen at Household Waste Recycling Centres.

Around 80% of Scotland’s carbon footprint and contribution to climate change is down to consumption: the things we make, buy, use and throw away – often before the end of their usable life. By implementing reuse ahead of other streams like recycling and disposal, we can keep an item in circulation longer, and reduce the need for making new.

The new guide aims to support Scottish local authorities in increasing the capture of quality reusable items and maximising reuse across their local authority area. We want to encourage local authorities to implement a reuse-first approach at HWRCs, whether they’re just beginning their reuse journey or they want to expand their existing offering.

We’ve created the guide to assist local authorities to scope out the best reuse options for their circumstance. Every local authority has their own individual opportunities, existing activity, and challenges, so there’s no “one size fits all” approach. By offering a range of options, and highlighting best practice, we aim for local authorities to feel more empowered to either begin or increase their reuse offering and install this as a first approach for customers to their HWRCs. The guide lays out several reuse options for consideration, from reuse shops on site, or adjacent to the HWRC, to staffed and serviced containers operating in a network with partners.

The guide details eight key steps to implementation and includes critical questions to ask at each stage of the process. The guide starts at the beginning, from scoping out the hierarchy of reuse options, to what is required to implement and communicate the service. It includes information on business planning, partnerships, procurement, and monitoring – to name just a few!

The guide is split into two sections: the guide for implementation itself and a case study section. Throughout the first section there are examples from both national and international organisations who are excelling at providing reuse opportunities. The case study document contains five detailed examples of Scottish local authorities that have implemented successful reuse activity at their HWRC sites.

The case studies detail the relationship between the council and their partner organisations from both perspectives. They include challenges, benefits and first-hand experience from all five local authorities and their delivery partners. These are a great resource to give you ideas and insights about your potential reuse journey and what is possible.

We’re delighted that the Making Reuse Happen guidance is now available to download from the Zero Waste Scotland website and would welcome all feedback as we continue to improve and expand the information.

The guide is available to download here.