The island of Bute is recycling more, reusing more and reducing its carbon footprint, as social enterprise Fyne Futures helps local people change the way they live.

In a nutshell…

We’re inspiring, educating and empowering people in Bute to make their community a better place to live.

The story so far…

It all began in 2004 with our recycling initiative. We are contracted by the local council to provide kerbside recycling to the local community, diverting waste from landfill.

As our enterprise has developed we have established other projects alongside the recycling. We added projects to reuse furniture – Restyle, and to grow more food – Bute Produce which came about in 2009. We also set up Towards Zero Waste Bute, to help us all to reduce our impact on climate change and Car Bute to reduce the number of cars and car journeys.

All our projects are set up to help local people improve their health, well-being and employment opportunities as well as improving the environment.

So what happens?

All these different projects provide ways for local people to contribute to improving the environment. For example, Bute Produce is a way of encouraging people to grow more food locally. Food being shipped onto the island and waste being shipped off is a large aspect of our sustainable operation. The food we grow in our accessible, edible garden in Rothesay is free for anyone to take. People can come along, learn about horticulture and benefit from being involved.

The difference we make

Here in Bute our recycling activities divert over 300 tonnes of waste from landfill every year.

We are also making a difference in people’s lives in lots of different ways. For example, Restyle gives low income households a really good shopping experience rather than having to ship in new furniture.

We’ve added something like £600,000 into the local economy through people’s work and volunteering hours.

Altogether our work is showing that we can live sustainable lives here on the island.

What matters to us?

Environment and people are our two pillars – everything we do will have a low carbon aspect to it and will also support people to live sustainable lives on Bute.

We create sustainable jobs where we can, and enable people with barriers to take up volunteering opportunities that help them develop skills for work.

Put simply, we are part of the community and the community is part of us!
Fyne Futures is the sustainability subsidiary of Fyne Homes.

Reeni-Kennedy Boyle
General Manager, Fyne Futures