What a waste

THE appointment of Vic Emery, chairman of the Scottish Police Authority, to become also the first chair of Zero Waste Scotland beggars belief. The one-time chairman of TIE, or Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, which oversaw the capital’s trams scheme, surely has enough to do at Police Scotland when many local police stations are facing closure and officer morale over Commonwealth Games 
duties and arrangements is 
reportedly low. If Zero Waste Scotland is intended to oversee the drive to reduce waste and recycle more, what happened to the promised bonfire of the quangos? We also learn that several local authorities will be reducing the size of wheelie bins to force residents to recycle more when many households already have boxes for newspapers and cardboard and bags for plastics. Will discarded larger wheelie bins end up as landfill, or are they to be recycled? Replacement costs, too, are a form of waste. What would have longer-term good effect could be discussing with manufacturers and retailers ways of improving and reducing the packaging goods.

Jim Craigen

Downie Grove

Edinburgh