Household Recycling Code of Practice: Consultation document

6. Waste receptacle colours

6.1 What the Code proposes

The Code includes a set of nationally recommended colours for household waste and recycling receptacles that local authorities should consider using when making a service change involving these material streams, set out in Table 8.

The Code does not recommend local authorities replace containers solely in order to align with these colours. Instead, local authorities should consider adopting the recommended colours when introducing new services or replacing containers at the end of their operational life, where this is practical, proportionate and represents good value for money.

6.2 How the recommended colours were selected

The recommended colours take account of:

• colour schemes currently used by Scottish local authorities
• established practice across the UK and Europe
• commonly recognised recycling communications conventions; and
• European work on waste visual identification systems^[36]

Recommended colours were primarily selected via a benchmarking exercise which took stock of the most common colours currently in use by Scottish local authorities. This was to build on existing public comprehension of which waste types are associated with which colours. Furthermore, recommending the most used colours would minimise any future change in terms of spend and carbon impact if and when procurement for new receptacles is carried out.

This benchmarking was compared with established practice across the UK and Europe to ensure broad alignment and to minimise the risk of clashing with any future UK or EU legislation on packaging.

Whilst there is no legal requirement prescribing specific colours for household recycling receptacles, and no plans to harmonise colours with respect to waste within the EU, the proposed colour scheme seeks to align with widely recognised conventions and provide a clear distinction between the material streams collected under the Code.

6.3 How co-design arrived at this proposal

Colour coding is one of the most widely recognised methods of providing instant visual information. It is not universally accessible, but consistent colours contribute to helping residents identify the correct container more quickly, support behaviour change, reduce accidental contamination and could make national communications campaigns easier to deliver.

Stakeholders generally agreed that greater consistency in the presentation of recycling services could support the wider aims of the Code by making recycling simpler to understand and easier to communicate, and public engagement with a citizens’ panel cited differences in bin colours as a source of confusion that make it harder to develop consistent recycling habits. However, local authorities consistently highlighted that replacing serviceable containers solely to achieve colour consistency would be inconsistent with circular economy principles and would divert resources away from measures more directly linked to improving recycling performance. Participants at co-design workshops highlighted the financial cost of replacement, the environmental impact of discarding serviceable containers and the view that colour consistency alone is unlikely to significantly improve recycling performance.

Many local authorities have invested significantly in containers that remain operationally fit for purpose and have substantial remaining service life. Requiring their replacement would create costs and co-design stakeholders noted it would also generate a large volume of avoidable waste, while delivering relatively limited benefit.

Stakeholders also emphasised that consistency of accepted materials is considerably more important than consistency of container colours. There was no support for existing containers to be replaced solely to help communications and public understanding benefits of standardisation.

The proposed approach seeks to balance these considerations by establishing a recommended national colour scheme while maintaining local flexibility and supporting the efficient use of existing assets. It was considered most consistent with the Vision for the Code of delivering affordable, practical and environmentally responsible services.