Fyne Futures at Eco Savvy

Fyne Futures provides a range of community projects to improve the environment and promote sustainability in and around Argyll and Bute. It currently operates a fortnightly recycling kerbside collection, collecting a range of materials from plastic bottles to cans, paper and tetrapaks, as well as a textile kerbside collection service. Fyne Futures also manage a collection service for unwanted furniture across Bute. This is offered for resale in the ‘Restyle Rothesay’ furniture shop.

The organisation is committed to providing employment opportunities for the long-term unemployed as well as offering placements in partnership with Argyll Training, and also offers volunteer opportunities.

The recycling centre is now managed alongside Bute Produce and Towards Zero Carbon Bute, and a new project involving the collection and processing into compost of kitchen waste, and of green waste. This is part of the Zero Waste Bute initiative, the aim of which is to inspire, educate and empower people to take action and live more sustainably. The ambition is that Bute will become an island which

• Views waste as a resource
• Takes an integrated approach to waste/resource management
• Seeks solutions that provide multiple benefits, including contribution to ‘zero carbon’ and resource efficiency
• Delivers Zero Waste Towns as an exemplar, going beyond national average expectations
• Acts as a catalyst for change and performance in the national context
• Supports more sustainable ways of living

On Wednesday 11th November Reeni Kennedy-Boyle, General Manager of Fyne Futures, came to Arran to describe the work that they are doing on Bute and the progress made so far, at a public meeting organized by Eco Savvy, Arran’s own sustainability charity. Reeni explained the steps involved in the setting up of the food waste collection service, and the processing of the waste in their rocket composter before it can be made available to the public to use as compost. She described some of the problems they had encountered and how they had tackled them, and how they are now moving on to dealing with green waste such as grass cuttings.

Like Bute, Arran has a serious problem with food and green waste. At present it is all shipped off the island to landfill, but in a few years time this will no longer be allowed. Grass cuttings are often dumped on the foreshore where they are unsightly and polluting. Imagine the difference if we could use food and green waste as a resource to make fine compost for our gardens – a waste problem would be solved, jobs and training opportunities created here, and unnecessary transportation of compost to the island avoided.