Renfrewshire Council

The cardboard inner tube is widely collected as part of your household recycling scheme and should be placed in your blue recycling bin or sack; however the used sheets of kitchen roll/paper towels should be placed in your grey refuse bin or sack.

You can compost paper towels - as long as it's not been used to clean up anything too yacky.

What do we mean by "yacky"? Well, anything on the "don't compost this" list really - if you've used your paper towels to clean up most pet waste or oil spills, or used it in connection with chemical cleaners/agents, then you shouldn't compost them. The goop might attract unwanted pests to the heap or could be harbouring nasty bacteria or pathogens which might not get broken down composting process.

Kitchen roll or paper towels used to clean up general food mess are usually fine - unless they're completely saturated with something from the don't compost list.