The centres, which include facilities at Seafield and Old Dalkeith Road, will allow householders to recycle materials including paper, glass, oil, wood, green waste, plastic and metals.
All six sites will include educational displays, which will keep the public informed about the performance of each site. Visitors will also be offered the chance to take away deposited items to re-use them.
Commenting on the projects, the city's director of environmental and consumer services, Mike Drewry, said: “The development of these sites will further help and encourage the residents of the City of Edinburgh to recycle more. This appointment is another element of our Waste Aware Edinburgh campaign.”
The council is yet to name three of the six sites, which are to be developed from next year to help the city improve on its 16% municipal waste recycling rate. Local authorities in Scotland are all pushing for the Scottish Executive's targets to recycle 25% of their municipal waste by 2005/06 and 30% by 2007/08.
Peter Bruce, director of Atkins Scotland, said the appointment underlined the company's expertise in the planning, design and development of waste facilities. He said the company was “delighted” to help Edinburgh achieve its recycling targets for municipal waste.
Atkins, one of the largest waste management consultancies in the UK, employs 450 people at its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen.
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