“Kintyre Recycling & Highlander – Perfect partnership on Paper!”

Everyone knows that recycling is important, but do you know what happens to your waste materials once they are collected? Kintyre Recycling – a charity & social Enterprise organisation provides employment opportunities to people with special or social needs and learning disabilities and in tandem, provides recycling services for households and businesses around the Kintyre Peninsula. Once collected, the organisation returns all recyclable materials to their Glebe street premises in Campbeltown and from there, the recycling journey really begins! A vital part of Kintyre’s operations is the processing of the materials it collects and this happens by Kintyre employees hand-sorting them into mixed plastics, cardboard, mixed papers, steel and aluminium cans, then baling these into 500kg blocks for onward transport. Thereafter, Kintyre need a reliable buyer of these materials, who will ensure the recyclables are processed responsibly into new products such as packaging materials and this lead to a “perfect paper partnership” being formed with Highlander International Recycling in Glasgow several years ago which has just been recently renewed. Highlander are the largest independent paper recycler in Scotland and they buy all the paper, cardboard and plastics from Kintyre Recycling, which are then forwarded to end markets all over the world such as Norway, China and Germany. Recent changes to residual waste bin collection frequencies in the Argyle & Bute area, has lead to Kintyre having to handle more materials as residents look to increase their recycling rates and Highlander provided a new baling machine to Kintyre completely free of charge, as part of a new agreement between the companies. This longterm agreement also delivers good prices and guaranteed end-markets for all the waste materials recycled, meaning Kintyre Recycling can continue its invaluable community work with peace of mind. Highlander Director, Stephen Duffy commented: “We have been working with Amanda, David and the team at Kintyre for several years now and when it became apparent that the volumes they handle would increase due to the new 3-weekly residual waste collections, we were delighted to help! We have provided a new baling machine which will increase capacity there by 25% and guaranteed markets for all recycled papers and plastics, long into the future! The team there are a vital part of the community and do a sterling job making sure the region’s waste is recycled responsibly and properly and Highlander, are honoured to be perfect partners with Kintyre Recycling long into the future!”