Credit: Norman Adams, Aberdeen City Council.

Aberdeen City Council has refurbished its Waste Aware Bus using recycled and reclaimed materials, to promote the recycling message in the city.

The bus, which travels around the city to provide residents with information and tips on waste and recycling, has been refurbished to include reclaimed flooring from a school gym, wall tiles from disused computer circuit boards and recycled plastic panelling, and stools made out of old tyres.

It is hoped the remodel will encourage more people to visit the bus, and find out more about the council's waste services including kerbside collection services, recycling centres and recycling points.

Aberdeen City Council Recycling Officer Christina McIntosh said: "We wanted to use the bus to show people how it's possible to reuse and recycle everyday items, for example, turning tyres into stools or giving old flooring or furniture a new lease of life.

"Upcycled accessories provide the perfect finishing touches onboard – brightly painted picture frames display leaflets about recycling, an ironing board frame is now used as a table for recycling bags and promotional items, and two bright pink tyres form a very unique stool.

"We are delighted with how the bus has turned out and it goes to show what can be achieved with a little imagination."

Aberdeen City Council Housing and Environment Convener, Councillor Neil Cooney, added: "The Waste Aware bus makeover is an example of practicing what you preach, and I would like to congratulate all involved for having the vision to complete such a unique project.

"The transformation has breathed new life into the bus but done so using materials that could have easily ended up being needlessly buried in landfill.”

He continued: "Aberdeen City Council views waste as a resource, not a problem, and we are always looking at ways of gaining value from waste at all stages of its life.

"This project is just one example of how that can be achieved, and I hope this will inspire others to adopt a similar view and think of clever ways to give waste a second life."

The council has been working on overhauling the waste service it offers to residents, and announced last week that it will move from dual-stream to fully co-mingled collections ‘over the next few years’, as it believes co-mingling is the ‘only way to comply with the statutory obligation in the [Waste (Scotland) Regulations] to provide a recycling collection to all households (including the >50 per cent in the city living in flats or tenements)’.

Find out more about waste and recycling services in Aberdeen or its plans to move to co-mingling.