Recycling Centre

Since its inception, Bute Recycling Centre has been considered as more than simply a processing plant for aluminum and plastic; it was envisioned, designed and constructed with the principles of sustainability at its core. Through working closely with the client, the locally appointed contractors and the local community we pursued various strategies to reduce the embodied energy and waste generated by the building’s materials and construction processes.

The majority of materials used to construct the centre were recycled, reclaimed or supplied from sustainable sources. The bricks are a variety of quality seconds, which would normally have been scrapped, but were used with the injunction, “never to let two bricks the same touch”. This generated a distinctive aesthetic appropriate to the building’s function. The roof is 100% recycled aluminium and the timber cladding is from a local sustainable source.

Recycled glass screens, used throughout the building, were constructed from locally sourced broken bottles by a Glasgow artist in collaboration with Haran Glass. They act to filter coloured light through the building and communicate the building’s function whilst providing privacy for a nursery to the rear of the site. The centre is highly insulated and designed with the flexibility to allow for the later inclusion of a recycling interpretive centre or a more fundamental change of use.

Bute Waste Watchers is a successful business, exporting compacted pallets of aluminium, plastic and textiles throughout the U.K. Through their recycling activities and by harnessing the symbolic qualities of the Recycling Centre they continue to promote and communicate the issues of recycling and sustainability throughout Bute.