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NorthLink Ferries has just completed the first year of a waste recycling initiative on its vessels operating on the Aberdeen – Orkney – Shetland routes.

The scheme, which is employed on the passenger and vehicle ro-ro ferries Hrossey and Hjaltland and the freight vessel Hascosay, has seen 98 tonnes of waste which would previously have gone to landfill being sorted and sent for recycling.

The scheme is operated in conjunction with a specialist company which has facilities for the onshore sorting of refuse once the vessels have berthed at Aberdeen Harbour. The vessels’ glass bottle waste is recycled in Shetland.. NorthLink’s MV Hamnavoe, which operates on the Pentland Firth route between Scrabster and Stromness, is also involved in the company’s environmental campaign as waste oil from her galley is collected for converting into bio-fuel.

NorthLink hotel operations manager Peter Hutchinson said: “We’ve kept a detailed log of our onboard recycling initiative since spring 2007 and we’re currently standing at 27 per cent recycling.

“For the second year of the initiative I’d like to see that figure rise to 35 per cent and then to hit 40 per cent of all onboard rubbish being recycled in year three.

“ However, in the first year of operation we have moved from a situation of having minimal recycling to a position whereby we’ve stopped sending almost 100 tonnes of waste straight to landfill and that’s a good start upon which we fully intend to build,” he said.