Green conference where cups were a real waste...

IT was the annual gathering of environmental campaigners in Scotland – so you would expect it would generate as little waste as possible.

But those attending the Scottish Resources Conference in Edinburgh this week were forced to use disposable cups.

Hundreds of environmental campaigners attended the conference organised by Zero Waste Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

The event promotes the reduction of waste and Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham was one of the headline speakers.

But attendees who had hoped that the Edinburgh International Conference Centre would play its part were left bitterly disappointed.

Campaigner Jenni Hume took to Twitter to voice her disgust, sharing a picture of the venue’s coffee station and tweeting: ‘Disappointing to see single-use plastic cups for water at #ScotRes17.’

Another attendee said: ‘It seems ridiculous they would use plastic cups when so many of us spend so much time promoting multi-use cups and trying to reduce waste.

‘It’s just unbelievable that the venue or organisers would use these cups when everyone here is trying to better the environment. There were people here talking about cutting down on plastic waste.’

Last night, Zero Waste Scotland confirmed there were plastic cups at the venue but after complaints they were replaced with glass.