News archive - Week ending 2nd November 2007

Acharacles £5 million Eco-School

Highland councillors have agreed to allocate £5.6 million to Scotlands first environmentally sustainable school, which will be built in West Lochaber. Campaigners have fought for more than 20 years for a replacement Acharacle Primary School. The condition of the present school is described as "dreadful". A 1960s flat-roofed extension to the school is now decomposing.

The new school will have very low energy requirements. Many of the features require a fundamental change of design from a standard primary school and it is hoped that these will become the norm.

Solway Recyclings Success Acknowledged

NFU Scotlands partnership organisation, Solway Recycling, celebrated fifteen years in business by winning two prestigious awards. The farm waste recycling company, which was started by a Dumfries agricultural contractor, now collects twenty per cent of the UK and Irelands agricultural industrys used silage wrap and other plastics.

The Company has won the Environmental Innovation category at the Eventful Scotland awards in Glasgow to add to the Environmental Leadership Award it had already received from Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, at the Business Commitment to the Environment Awards in June.

NFU Scotlands Business Development Manager, Alison Gillespie said, NFU Scotland is delighted to be associated with such a successful company. In January this year, we entered into an agreement with Solway Recycling, which offers worthwhile benefits for NFU Scotland members. These include a free starter pack, a substantial reduction on Solways Bin and Liner Systems, and more recently, reductions on products made from recycled plastic such as Stokbord.

Campaign to Return Used Packaging

Campaigners are returning unwanted packaging to supermarkets as part of a campaign to cut waste. Friends of the Earth Scotland wants store managers to tell their head offices to stop over-packaging goods. The protestors handed back what they see as excess paper, plastic and cardboard, and asked shoppers to sign a petition. The protest targeted stores in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk, Kirkcaldy, Elgin and Fort William.

However, the Scottish Retail Consortium described the protest as "misguided" and claimed that stores are already taking steps to boost recycling.