Bute Waste Watchers
Started in 1998 by two local people and subsequently consisting of 12 members who met on a monthly basis BWW was a not for profit voluntary group originated to increase recycling and environmental awareness on the island. Like many others they were concerned at the present disposal system of the waste produced on the island.

Part funded by landfill tax credit scheme and the national lottery board. The group now employed one part-time project officer to oversee and develop recycling projects for Bute.

As the result of a trip the namesake community of Rothesay, New Brunswick in Canada in early 2001 to inspect the local recycling initiatives over there Bute Waste Watchers started a fundraising drive to build a local recycling centre for the island.

In 2005 BWW was absorbed by the Fyne Futures, a subsidiary charity of Argyll & Bute social housing organisation Fyne Homes.
Fyne Futures was established as a company limited by guarantee in January 2005 to take forward the environmental and community aims of a number of groups on a more sustainable and focussed basis.

Fyne Futures has charitable status and aims to:

• Preserve, restore and improve the environment in / around Argyll & Bute through improved public open space and townscape improvements.

• Protect the environment from further damage via waste management and recycling as well as raising awareness on recycling and environmental renewables.

A key element of the organisations work is in relation to their recycling operation, which collects from nearly 1,500 participating households and 25 bring sites across the area of Cowal and Bute.

This strategic project should help the organisation achieve an additional 60% of recyclables per annum increasing their waste tonnage diversion from 245 tonnes to 400 tonnes, then to 560 tonnes at the end of the 2 nd year. This is well above the Strategic Waste Targets for Fyne Futures and would allow the organisation to make a considerable enhancement to recycling activities in the Cowal and Bute area. This will involve purchasing two new purpose built Recycling Vehicles (7.5 ton with 3.5 ton carrying capacity), marketing outreach programme, administration support and business support.

“This strategic project will enable us to increase recycling participation, increase our capacity and efficiency in delivering our recycling services and allow us to operate as a sustainable business for our long term future. New collection methods using purpose built vehicles will improve efficiency and will free up staff resources to be used to develop new income streams. Business support and increased marketing will also improve our longer term sustainability.”

One of our new collection vehicles
Inside the recycling centre.

As a group our main aims are to reduce waste going into landfill sites and to encourage a deeper understanding of the environment we live on. Any money generated will be used to ensure it’s continuation.

On Bute alone and throughout Scotland we produce on average one tonne of household waste per year. Of this only a small fraction, 6% is recycled, the remainder going into Landfill sites. The act of land filling is now raising major concerns for the environment, through the production of toxic gases, that may contribute to climate change, the ever diminishing supply of natural resources and sites filling up too quickly meaning less and less areas are left to hide our waste. How much longer can this continue and what do we do next?

Waste not want not: The word ‘waste’ however portrays an incorrect picture for if a bit of thought, direction and effort are directed to this problem, then the waste could become a valuable, untapped resource, which like many small pockets in Scotland, like Bute, the local communities are catching on to the idea of turning trash into cash with increased benefits to the environment.

What have we done.
Our first project was the Aluminium can collection scheme offered to several Pubs, Cafes and Hotels around Bute. Initially, these where collected by volunteers using a car and trailer. Nowadays you may see Phil darting around Rothesay every Thursday - the CAN MAN - with his eco-friendly Bike and Trailer - no wasted energy here and great benefits for the national health service, that is, providing no serious injury occurs whilst on his rounds.

To date the group have diverted 1 and a ½ tonnes of aluminium from landfill sites, that's some 70,000 cans of irn bru and coke etc. These will then be recycled into more cans or may even end up as a Bike or part of your car thus preventing more of our resources being wasted. With a market price of around £650.00 a tonne it seems foolish to simply allow such a commodity to be thrown away. Imagine throwing loads of money into a big hole, well that's exactly what happens on a regular basis on Bute and around Scotland.

Did you know?
For each can we use part, of our planet will have to be dug up. The aluminium we need is obtained from an ore called bauxite. This is mined from valuable and diminishing rainforests. The next time we buy an irn bru for a drink, think where the can may have started it's journey and the damage it may cause!!

BWW are continuously seeking to expand their can collection. To date we have 15 collection points and 5 premises that deliver to us. However as we are not yet fully functional, with no suitable storage or collection vehicle. This puts limitations on how many preemises we can collect from or how much we can realistically store.
Therefore it has been agreed to encourage new outlets who wish to participate to drop cans of at our storage space.
We hope this proves successful and to ensure no complications, such as cans lying outside door premises over night it may be useful to inform Phil at the numbers below when you will be dropping off cans to arrange further handling and storage.

Compost scheme.
In the past few months we have started phase one of our composting scheme to encourage home composting. We are offering to build compost bins (at your home or commercial premises) with a compost advice service, an indoor container, follow up checks and turning the heaps to ensure all is ok.

It is well known that our household bins contain an average of 60% organic matter. This is kitchen waste, garden waste and paper etc (anything that rots)! When this is dumped into the landfill the breaking down process is hindered by the lack of oxygen resulting in the production of the climate changing gas methane. Leachate liquid is also produced which can be washed out of the landfill and pollute our water sources.

Our home composting service is proving successful and for as little as £15 we have several happy composters now converting their organic waste into a new product. This can then be used to enrich the soil in their veg plots and provide nutrients for plants.
To learn more about home composting click here

In the meantime:
By following the three R’s, Reduce, Re-use and Recycle, by participating with BWW schemes and using the other recycling facilities around Rothesay we can all do our bit and You’ll be amazed at how little actually needs to be thrown into your bins.

Tony Edwards
Fyne Futures
Project Manager
Bute Recycling Centre
Colbeck Lane
Rothesay
Isle of Bute

Tel 01700 503181
Mobile 07790954255

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