August end for Return & Recycle Orkney

Return and Recycle Orkney is set to close at the end of this month.

The initiative, located at Restart – Employability Orkney in Kirkwall, has seen the public return over 46,000 plastic bottles, cans and glass bottles via two reverse vending machines.

Each item returned generates a 20p donation which they can then make to an Orkney-based charity.

Charities which have benefited include: Mind-On, The Peedie Retreat, Woman’s Aid, the Orkney Folk Festival, Home-Start Orkney and the Stromness Museum.

The project, which launched last November, was partly hoped to trial technology that would be used for the Scottish Government’s ill-fated Deposit Return Scheme, by testing the operation of reverse vending machines and the transport of collected materials on one of Scotland’s islands.

From September 1, the public are asked to recycle their plastic bottles, cans and glass bottles through their kerbside recycling collection or at their nearest recycling centre.

A final cheque presentation event will be held in early September for the remaining charity recipients of the initiative.