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2 June 08 15 May 08 17 April 08 7 April 08 25 February 08 Highland Council has made it through to the final stages of the competition and will now compete against both Falkirk and Moray Council for a chance to scoop the Local Authority Partnership Award, at this year's Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS) 2008 Awards. The Awards ceremony, which takes place at Perth Concert Hall on March 11th, will recognise the most successful and innovative community recycling projects which have taken place over the last 12 months in Scotland. Highland Council has been shortlisted in recognition of its support for nine community recycling enterprises across the Highlands and Islands region, including projects based in Acharacle, Fort William, Uig, Bettyhill, Thurso, Golspie, Evanton, Alness and Inverness. Through the allocation of Waste Diversion agreements, the Council works with organisations to reduce the amount of waste diverted to landfills and ensure as much waste as possible is reused and recycled. Through this partnership, the Council will divert 4,000 tonnes of municipal waste from landfill disposal for 2007-2008, which accounts for 8% of the area's recycling activities. Councillor John Laing, Chairman of The Highland Council's TEC Services Committee and spokesperson for Waste Management said: "We are delighted to be shortlisted for the CRNS Awards as it is another way in which we can help to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and the need for community involvement. "The community sector in Highland provides a wide variety of services, including collection of furniture and other household items for reuse from our recycling centres, community composting, wood reuse & recycling and kerbside recycling. "The groups have benefited from over £600k of funding from the Strategic Waste Fund and a further £200k from the council's landfill diversion budget in 2007/08. This amount of funding will be available to the groups for the forthcoming financial year." The council joins 10 other leading organisations and initiatives selected to compete in one of three award categories, namely CRNS Member of the Year, Innovation Award, and the Local Authority Partnership Award. This year's accolades have been the most hotly contested in the CRNS' awards history, as a total of 42 high quality nominations were received from existing community recycling projects across the whole of Scotland. CRNS Network Director, Iain Gulland, said: "The finalists for this year's CRNS More Than Recycling Awards 08 really illustrate the diversity of the Scottish community recycling sector, as well as bearing testament to the real social, economical and environmental benefits which can be reaped by Scottish communities. "As a growing trend in Scotland, community recycling is a sector which now has an annual turnover in excess of £26 million and employs over 1,100 people nationally, as well as offering another 950 training places and providing 3,200 volunteer opportunities. "We hope our More Than Recycling 08 Conference will illustrate exactly how much potential community recycling has to help communities on a practical level as well as protecting the environment in general, and that this encourages more projects to emerge and more local authority support." The CRNS Award-winners will be announced at the More Than Recycling Conference, which will be held on the 11th March at Perth Concert Hall. Poised to be the biggest ever gathering of people committed to realising the potential of the community recycling sector in Scotland, 'More Than Recycling 08' boast a strong line-up of speakers from a variety of backgrounds within the industry. To book a place at 'More Than Recycling 08' visit www.crns.org.uk/index/mtr08 or call 01786 469002 26 November 07 To qualify for the free bulbs community members must receive one of the following benefits: Council tax benefit; housing benefit; income support; income-based job seekers allowance; attendance allowance; disability allowance; war disablement pension; disablement pension; state pension credit; child tax credit or working tax credit. Melanie MacRae, Assistant Development Officer for the North Highlands from HICEC is coordinating the project for the area. “It is really important to raise the awareness among our communities of the savings that can be made from using energy more efficiently. Lighting can account for up to 10 % of the average domestic electricity bill. The use of energy saving light bulbs is a very quick and simple option to reduce your energy bills and cut carbon dioxide emissions, saving the environment and your purse!. Energy efficient light bulbs use less than a quarter of the electricity of ordinary light bulbs, can last up to 15 times longer, and produce 70% less CO2 emissions than ordinary incandescent light bulbs” For information on how to receive the bulbs contact any of the organisations below
18 November 07 Deadly seal virus returns to Europe Following the reports that PDV (Phocine Distemper Virus) has been reported in Denmark , British Divers Marine Life Rescue has started to make contingency plans should the virus reach the UK seal colonies as it has done in the past outbreaks in 1988 and 2002. BDMLR has a ‘handling protocol’ in place, which was drawn up during the last outbreak of PDV in 2002. BDMLR has already made contact with a number of other organisations [4] which have previously been involved with the response and challenges required to deal with the results of the effects of the virus. Tony Woodley, BDMLR’s national press officer, said "British Divers Marine Life Rescue was formed during the first outbreak of this virus in 1988 and in 2002 our volunteers around the UK again helped the Common seals affected. Our veterinary advisers confirm that on both these previous occasions the virus took a number of weeks to reach the UK shores from the rest of Europe." "BDMLR has contingency plans in place and we will be briefing our network of volunteers and have already started to communicate with other organisations within the M.A.R.C. [5] to ensure we are ready for when the virus reaches the UK", continued Tony. The virus does not affect humans but members of the public are advised to keep dogs away from seals.
20 June 07
13 March 07 This new approach will be implemented with immediate effect and Local Authority officers will be actively investigating reports of fly tipping and where evidence is found that connects the waste to an address the offender will be visited and issued with a fixed penalty notice. Since the 1st January 2007 in the Inverness area there have been over 200 reports of fly tipping received from members of the public which the Council's TEC Service have responded to and uplifted the waste. Community Warden Lorna Jackson said: "This level of fly tipping is a huge cost to the council which must now be tackled by carrying out more thorough investigations. Where the dumping is of a larger scale, the offender will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal for the consideration of a prosecution, if convicted the fine can be anything up to £40,000 and carries the possibility of a six month jail sentence. "There are of course other powers contained within the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which the Council can use to force landowners to keep land under their control litter and waste free and these will also be utilised where a solution cannot be reached by amicable agreement, these powers extend to private land and can include street litter where the presence of litter on the street or adjacent land has originated from a particular business. Another measure the council will be implementing is the issuing of fixed penalty notices to litter offenders this means that any one caught dropping litter will be issued a £50 fixed penalty notice." Although the council find it necessary to implement these tough measures to tackle the problems associated with fly tipping and littering they would encourage communities and community groups to take a pride in the environment where they live and participate in community clean ups. Keep Scotland Beautiful is an organisation which can provide all the information and support communities need to carry out a clean up and welcome participants to contact them especially during the month of April when events will be organised on a national basis as part of National Spring Clean. Any group that is interested in organising a Community Clean can register on the Keep Scotland Beautiful website www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org where they will receive advice and assistance on organising a community cleaning event.
12 January 07
11 December 06 The trips are on offer in a prize draw for people who complete a questionnaire on the SNH 2006 Annual Review by mid January 2007. The review sets out the work of SNH over the last year, from management of reserves to supporting Scotland's new access legislation and encouraging biodiversity by offering more than £15million in grants. The accompanying short questionnaire enables people to have their say about the review and also be entered into the draw. There are four prizes: a special guided boat trip to Loch Maree Islands National Nature Reserve (NNR), near Kinlochewe; helping with a dawn goose count at Caerlaverock NNR in Dumfriesshire; the chance to be special guests on the Isle of May NNR in the Firth of Forth and a guided shore walk with an SNH marine biologist exploring rock pools. Anyone interested can get the review and the accompanying questionnaire free from SNH Publications, Battleby, Redgorton, Perth, PH1 3EW. Telephone 01738 444177. It is also available via SNH's website www.snh.org.uk and from SNH offices. The deadline for competition entries is 15 January 2007.
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31 August 06 This special offer is available until 30th September and as the demand is expected to be high, the Council is advising anyone interested in buying a compost bin to order theirs early. Postcards detailing how to take up the discount deal will be delivered to householders soon. Composting is a recycling technique that uses natural processes to convert organic materials to humus through the action of microorganisms and bacteria in soil. Compost is a mixture that consists largely of decayed organic matter, such as garden and kitchen waste, and is used for fertilising and conditioning land. Both seasoned and occasional gardeners are being encouraged to take up home composting and help to significantly reduce the amount of domestic and commercial waste that goes to landfill. This campaign is a partnership between The Highland Council, WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and The Scottish Waste Awareness Group. The Council's spokesperson on Waste Management, Councillor Bill Fulton said: "Composting selected kitchen and garden waste is an effective way of reducing, reusing and recycling some of the daily waste we produce, while providing significant benefits for our gardens and the wider environment. It is easy to do and once you start you will be surprised just how much of your daily household waste can be recycled this way." A similar offer was available last year to residents of Skye and Lochalsh and Wester Ross and areas of Sutherland. This proved to be a great success with over 2,000 compost bins being purchased. Skye and Lochalsh will be targeted again in October.
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6 February 06 The average Scottish consumer wastes £1597 per year on goods and services that they don't use, £438 of this is uneaten food. In a bid to stem this disturbing growth in waste, the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have published a consultation paper detailing actions which could be taken by everyone. Questions are being asked of designers, retailers, consumers and local authorities and include; · What more can be done to promote ecodesign in Scotland, and what can be done to lengthen the lifespan of products? · What further action could be taken to minimise packaging waste and would deposit-refund schemes be the answer? · What information on products should be used to help people choose low waste alternatives? · Should we look further at charging households for the amount of waste they produce? · What could be done to reduce the amount of junk mail we all receive, and the numbers of plastic bags that we consume? Make sure your opinions are heard. Go To the Consultation on the Scottish Executive web site
· Scotland's National Waste Strategy set an
aim of 0% growth in municipal waste arising by the year 2010. · However, municipal waste continues to increase - by around 2% a year.
The reasons for this growth are complex:
13 January 06
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Achvaradal Woodland Management Group Caithness & Sutherland Environmental Group Sutherland & Caithness Recycling Action Partnership (SCRAP) Countryside Volunteers Caithness Dunnet Head Educational Trust - New 1 June 03 Friends Of Newton Hill Woodland Friends Of The Trinkie And The North Baths Highland Council Ranger Service Highland Council Ecologist / Conservation Officer Ormlie Renewables - Shout Out Savings Scottish Environmental Protection Agency Wick Play Areas Community Group Links To Environmental Groups & Issues Association For The Protection of Rural Scotland Friends Of The Earth - Scotland Environmental Information Service - Scotland Environmental Links Recycling Links
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