Supporting the journey towards a 'Green Scotland'

The Highland Community Waste Partnership (HCWP) had the opportunity to support an upcoming BBC Alba documentary last week, looking at how we can all work towards achieving net zero.

The documentary features a family of five, with three young children, living in Inverness, and follows their journey to reduce their carbon footprint, by looking at their habits around home energy use, transport, recycling, clothing and food.

Isabel, from HCWP partner Velocity Café and Bicycle Workshop in Inverness, chatted to the family about how they could reduce food and packaging waste within their home.

She provided advice about how to prevent food waste, one of the key strands of waste that we focus on within the Partnership, and provided some handy Love Food Hate Waste resources from Zero Waste Scotland, that we use within the Partnership.

She also chatted to them about how to reduce the impact of any food waste that is created, through the Highland Council food waste recycling service, which is available to Inverness residents.

Isabel said: "I was pleased to see that the family already used the council's food waste recycling service and I was happy to help answer some questions about liners and what could go in the food waste caddy, to help them make best use of it."

As part of their work for the HCWP, Velocity are looking at how to increase food waste recycling within the city.

The family have also just gotten an allotment and were keen to try home composting. To support this, Isabel provided them with a copy of The Spirit of the Soil, a handy resource from HCWP partner Lochaber Environmental Group, which looks at food growing, composting and soil health within the unique environment of the Scottish Highlands.

They then headed over to Ness Refill, a new packaging-free 'refill' store in Inverness, for some zero-waste shopping. The family wanted to learn how a refill shop works and to explore how they could incorporate packaging-free options into their weekly shopping, in order to use less packaging and reduce their household waste.

Isabel said: “I really enjoyed helping the family take small, easy steps towards lowering their carbon footprint at home. Most people don’t realise how much food waste contributes to climate change or how small changes to reduce food waste at home can make a big difference to the environment and a family’s pocket. Trying new things, like refill shops, can seem daunting but once you’ve tried it you’d be surprised how easy it is and how much packaging can be reduced”.

To learn more about how to reduce waste in the fight against climate change, visit the Highland Community Waste Partnership website and Events page. You can also follow us on social media on Instagram and Facebook.