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Hello, my name is Erin McCluskey. 
I am an outreach worker for BDA Scotland.

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I’m very excited to be making this 
video with my amazing guest today.

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Could you introduce yourself please?

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Hi. My name is James Colhoun.

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In this video we’re going to cover an 
interesting topic. Under the BSL (Scotland)

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Act 2015, local councils across Scotland 
have certain obligations.

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One of the services councils provide 
is rubbish and recycling collections.

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In this video we want to focus on why
it’s important to separate out your recycling.

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Before I get carried away, 
I should ask James to explain his role.

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Sure. I work at a recycling centre 
dealing with the glass.

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The glass is all processed and recycled 
and reused to make the special white paint

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used to paint lines on motorways. 
The glass makes the paint glow at night

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when it is lit up by headlights. 
It is also used to create a similar effect

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in the reflective strips on Hi-Vis jackets. 
These things are both made from recycled glass.

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They are really made from glass? 
That’s amazing! Can I ask James,

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why is it so important to separate out 
your recycling, your glass, your paper,

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your plastic and so on? Why do we have 
to put all these things into separate bins?

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It is really important, yes. I really want 
to emphasise that. It’s important to

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separate it all out. In Glasgow, 
the green bins are for general waste

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so anything that’s not suitable for 
recycling should go in those.

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The purple bin is for your bottles and jars, 
the brown bin is for food waste,

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the grey bin is for plastics, and the 
blue bin is for cardboard and paper.

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You can put shredded paper in there too.
It’s really important to keep all this

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waste separate, and I will explain why. 
So, as I said before, I work on the glass.

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When the lorries come into the recycling 
centre, all the glass that they have collected

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up is put into a big hopper. It is my job 
to load it into the hopper,

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which is like a giant funnel.

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So the glass goes into the top of that?

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Yes, that’s right, into the top and then 
down into the hopper. Obviously, I can’t

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see inside it. If a piece of wood for 
example or some food waste or plastic

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gets mixed up with that, it makes a real 
mess and destroys the whole process.

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It can break the machinery and then that 
will need to be fixed. This means that the

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lorries returning to the recycling centre 
back up because they can’t unload.

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It’s the same thing with the plastic. 
If it gets mixed up with other types of waste,

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it causes all sorts of problems. 
Please, please don’t do that!

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There is no way for us to sort through it 
so if it does get mixed up, we just have to

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throw the whole lot away. It gets 
compressed and dumped into landfill!

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So that means it can’t be recycled?

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Unfortunately not, no. It has to be dumped 
because it’s contaminated.

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Lots of people don’t follow the system and 
just dump their waste into any bin,

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so it all gets mixed up. It’s no good 
though if it’s not done right.

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I see your point. Recycling needs to go into 
the correct bin and that’s really important,

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judging by what you say.

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It is, yes. If everything was separated 
out correctly, the process would run really

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smoothly, and everything would get 
recycled. Recycling helps the planet,

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it saves trees. We all need to look 
after the environment.

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If people just sorted their rubbish
properly, the recycling process would

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run smoothly. If people ignore the 
instructions, we’re just going to end up

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repeating the same thing.

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Thank you for explaining why it’s so important, 
James. This is a great opportunity

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to remind everybody that each council 
has its own system for collecting recycling.

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The bins are not the same colour in 
every place. It’s best that you check your

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own council’s website to find out what 
the system is in your area. If you can’t find

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the information you need, you can contact 
the BSL Helpline, and they will make sure

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that you find the information you need 
to recycle effectively and do your bit to

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keep our environment clean. Thank you 
so much for your time today, James.

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No problem, thank you.