Black bag sorting at Household Waste Recycling Centres
A technical report and communications toolkit to support the implementation of black bag sorting at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs).
Black bag sorting requires any customer that brings bags or containers of mixed residual waste into a HWRC to sort their waste and remove any recyclables.
This was identified as the most impactful intervention to increase the performance of a HWRC in our Household Waste Recycling Centre Intervention Analysis Report.
Angus black bag sorting pilot
In 2025-26 we delivered a pilot in partnership with Angus Council to collect and analyse evidence to understand the real-life impact of black bag sorting on a HWRC’s performance.
The pilot found that black bag sorting was effective in:
- increasing the site recycling rate;
- reducing the residual waste received on site;
- reducing the residual waste processing costs; and
- delivering customer behaviour change.
Staff feedback also highlighted that the intervention created a safer working environment due to the separation of hazardous items such as batteries and small electricals.
Downloads
HWRC Intervention Pilot (2025/26) – black bag sorting at Forfar Recycling Centre
This report details the planning and delivery of the pilot, presents the analysis of the findings and concludes with the role black bag sorting can play in improving the performance of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs).
HWRC Intervention Report Appendix Data Tables
This Excel spreadsheet provides the data for graphs included in Section 5 of the pilot report.
HWRC Black Bag Sorting Communications Toolkit
This toolkit provides guidance to help plan the introduce of back bag sorting. It includes downloadable communication templates that can be adapted by local authorities.
