Island shops awarded funding to reduce single use packaging

A new shopping scheme aimed at dramatically reducing waste from single-use items on Scotland’s islands has awarded more than £250,000 to 20 local retailers, including 15 on the West Coast.

 

Scottish Government and European Regional Development Fund grants will allow shops from 12 Scottish islands to offer shoppers more reusable options.

 

In addition to seeing waste frequently washing up on the shores around them, island communities bear the double burden of dealing with imported single-use items and then the shipping-off of waste.

 

The Islands Green Recovery Programme Refill Fund will provide dispensing and other equipment that enables customers to obtain grocery products in reusable containers brought from home.

 

Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, said: 'There has been a lot of interest in the scheme and it is pleasing to see the demand is there for retailers and their customers to make the switch to reusables.

 

'If we can demonstrate the success of refill-type shops on the islands, it could lead the way in changing how we shop nationwide.'

 

Western Isles retailers benefiting from the funding include: Essence of Harris; Sandwick Bay candles Ltd, Stornoway; Carbost Community Shop CIC, Rankins Supermarket, The Selkie Collective, Sleat Community Trading Company Ltd, Armadale Stores, Glendale Shop and PO, all Isle of Skye; Raasay Community Stores; Isle of Eigg Shop; Bùth Bharraigh, Isle of Barra; Lismore Stores; Campbells of Islay Ltd, Isle of Islay; Ardminish Stores, Isle of Gigha; Isle of Arran Brewery; Arran Ice Cream and Taste of Arran.

 

Emma Bee, founder of The Selkie Collective, said: 'We are very excited to have received the IGRP funding. It will allow us to widen our existing range of refill options by funding dried food dispensers.

 

'We will now be able to provide not only household cleaning refills but foods such as pasta, flour and dried fruit to our customers in Skye and Lochalsh. This will add to the efforts in our community to reduce the large amount of single-use plastic.'

 

The scheme is part of a larger £2million programme designed to inspire locally-led green projects as part of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The Islands Green Recovery Programme Refill Fund is part of Zero Waste Scotland’s Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme, which will invest £73m in circular economy and resource efficiency projects, thanks to support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).