SIC to lobby Scottish Government over proposed flexible plastic recycling
SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) will make the case to the Scottish Government that it is the “wrong decision” for Shetland to start recycling flexible plastics.
The Scottish Government wants all Scottish local authorities to begin collecting flexible plastics, which can include clingfilm, crisp packets and sweetie wrappers, from homes over the coming years.
Currently these are dropped at collection points across Scotland, with the Tesco supermarket in Lerwick having a drop-off point.
However there has been push back from the SIC against the plans, with fears that it could be costly and counter-productive environmentally.
SIC waste operations manager Brydon Gray said last week that flexible plastics “cost an absolute fortune to collect”.
“The Scottish Government is pushing us towards collecting this material, but the cost is excessive,” he added.
SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison said they would be making the case to central government that the scheme was not a good fit for the isles.
“Just saying the whole of Scotland should be collecting flexible plastics doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing for Shetland,” she told Shetland News.
As well as the extra cost of collecting flexible plastics, these would then have to be shipped south too, which would make the whole process carbon negative.
There have also been some concerns about the impact on Lerwick’s energy recovery plant if more material was being recycled.
Sandison said they could use island impact assessments to show the Scottish Government that recycling flexible plastics could be harmful locally.
However, she said the problem with a lot of national decisions were that they were “actually EU directive decisions” being pushed on to central governments.
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“So we might not have the same ability to put the same impact assessments across the top of it,” Sandison explained.
She said they would be having conversations with regulators about what could be done.
Asked if the SIC would instead then have to focus on talks with regulatory bodies rather than with the Scottish Government about flexible plastics, Sandison replied: “We’ll need to do both.
“I think we need to make sure the Scottish Government agrees with the position we’re taking,” she said.
The SIC chief explained that every bit of the council’s waste service operated on licences, and said the conditions of these had to be complied with.
“So if we’re told to stop burning flexible plastics, we have to comply with that,” she said.
“It will be the change to the licensing requirement that would almost drive the activity.”
Lerwick community councillor Duncan Swainston said last Monday that the scheme “doesn’t seem to work for Shetland”.
Waste operations manager Gray responded that the SIC had been “arguing for months that it doesn’t really work” up here, and added that they were “certainly not lying down” to the government’s demands.
Other items that can be recycled as soft plastics include bread bags, plastic cereal bags and pet food pouches.
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