Aberdeen's bins
The **mixed recycling bin** takes paper, card, metal, plastic and glass — all together, in one container. That is unusually generous. Most Scottish councils split at least two of those into separate bins, and several keep glass out of kerbside collection entirely.
The **general waste bin** takes household waste that cannot be reused or recycled. The council is specific about what must stay out: batteries, vapes, small electrical items, gas canisters, hot ashes, rubble or soil, corrosive materials, liquids including paint, stones and large solid objects.
The **brown bin** takes food and garden waste for composting.
The rule that matters most: **put recycling in loose, not in bags**. It is sorted after collection, and a sorting line cannot see inside a black bag — bagged material is frequently treated as general waste and lost.
- Mixed recycling — paper, card, metal, plastic, glass
- General waste — anything not recyclable
- Brown — food and garden waste
- Recycling goes in LOOSE, never bagged
- Glass goes in with everything else
- Aberdeen City residents
Simple here, complicated in Dundee
Ninety minutes south, Dundee runs six containers: blue for paper and card, burgundy for metals and plastics, green for glass, a food caddy, a brown garden bin and a grey general bin. Aberdeen does the same job with three.
Neither is better. They are matched to different sorting facilities — Aberdeen's route can separate mixed material mechanically, Dundee's contracts want it presented already separated. It is a fact about their processing contracts rather than about the material.
It does mean you cannot reason your way to the right answer if you move. Our Dundee bin colours guide covers the six-bin version, and why bin colours are different in every Scottish council explains how Scotland ended up like this.
One bin won't hold a house clearance
We clear across Aberdeen and the shire, sorted by stream and over 80% diverted.
When your bins are collected
Aberdeen publishes collection days by address, and that lookup is the only reliable source — days differ street to street, change after route reviews and shift around public holidays.
Check yours on the council's bin collection days page.
We deliberately do not print a calendar here. A guide that gives you the wrong day is worse than one that tells you where to look.
The ones people get wrong
Anything with a plug or a battery. The council names batteries, vapes and small electricals explicitly as banned from the general bin. That is WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) and it needs its own route — a vape is a lithium battery in a plastic case, and crushed in a bin lorry it is a genuine fire risk.
Rubble, soil and stones. Named as excluded from the general bin. Inert material is heavy and goes to a different facility — see soil removal and concrete and rubble removal.
Liquids and paint. Corrosive materials and liquid paint are excluded. Dried-out paint is different — our hazardous and special waste page explains the distinction.
Bagged recycling. It looks tidy and it defeats the sorting process. Loose, every time.
When no bin will do
Bins handle a household's weekly output. They do not handle a house clearance, a suite, a fridge-freezer or a garage emptied after fifteen years — and leaving those beside a bin is fly-tipping rather than recycling, covered in what happens if you're caught fly-tipping.
For the tip, note that Aberdeen city and Aberdeenshire run separate services with different rules — see Aberdeen recycling centres and Aberdeenshire recycling centres.
Or we collect: no permit, no booking, no carrying on your part, loads from £100 + VAT. See rubbish removal in Aberdeen or house clearance.
