On the mainland the hauled up lines  and containers full of litter from the beach have been collected from the Isle Martin Slipway by the Highland Counci and taken back to Ullapools Waste Transfer Station. I  spent Monday mirroring  the sorting procedure of the station selecting out materials for recycling and landfill . In total 116 kilos of litter  was removed from the back beach and  towed off the island, unfortunately there is much more still there!

The majority of the litter  was rope and commercial fishing litter, with a small amount of domestic litter the majority of which was undoubtedly plastic bottles and caps . From my collection the plastic bottles and metal cans are the prime the materials that will feed into the recycling program of the Highland Council the rest will unfortunately be going to landfill .   I will shortly be heading off north to follow the  journey that waste materials going to landfill make from Ross-Shire once compacted into the road containers.

As I worked through the litter inside the  open shed of the Transfer Station  high on the hill  Isle Martin was in view and  I mused on  how in less than 24hours I had moved from the  sublime to the ridiculous. I will definitely return to the small fascinating sublime island to revel in its ecology and views.