Arrochar, a quaint village at the tip of Loch Long, nestled amongst the Scottish Highlands, harbours one of Scotland’s greatest plastic pollution problems. Approximately 11% of litter carried in the River Clyde, passing through the city of Glasgow, washes up on the banks of Arrochar.
Prevailing winds propel the waste up the loch, creating what is known as the Arrochar litter sink. 62,000 items of rubbish arrive each year, most of which come from rivers and tributaries in and around Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city.
Once harvested to fertilise farmland, seaweed is now entangled with rubbish, rendering what was previously a valuable natural resource unusable for the community. Campaigners want to stop the problem at its root, encouraging the introduction of a deposit return scheme for bottles and cans.
The scheme was initially set to be operational in Scotland by 2023 but was later postponed after businesses objected to the introduction of glass. The UK government deliberated on blocking Scotland’s scheme to implement a single scheme across all four nations. The scheme was eventually granted under the conditions that glass be excluded from the Scottish plan to align with plans applied in England. However, it has been delayed to 2027 in accordance with the UK scheme.
In December of 2024, Wales opted out and plans to create its own scheme with the addition of glass recycling. The deposit return scheme in the Republic of Ireland seized over 900 million items in its first year, and over 2,000 reverse vending machines were installed in shops across Ireland. Buyers are expected to pay a deposit of 15 cents for every plastic bottle or can purchased, this is later refunded upon the item’s return.
Reverse vending machines cost shop owners up to €15,000 (£12,500), but the option remains for stores to collect returned items over the counter. The scheme has increased footfall in shops and Environmental group Coastwatch Europe, which monitors more than 500 stretches of shore in Ireland, has observed significant progress. Co-founder Karin Dubsky believes that’s not just down to the deposit return scheme but also a broader appreciation of the impact of plastic pollution. “There is so much positivity and I think it has opened the gates to a different kind of thinking,” she said.
Scottish politicians share this optimism, hoping to increase obstinate household recycling figures that have scarcely moved in the last decade. In 2023, 43.5% of household waste was recycled, compared with 42.9% in 2014.
The Scottish government predicts the scheme will reduce littering by a third and increase the recycling of single-use drink containers to 90%. Scottish ministers remain committed to delivering the scheme by 2027, this enthusiasm is shared by environmental charities and communities across Scotland.
