Chamber and committees

I will follow on from some of the points that have already been made. Mr Devine said that the financial memorandum was helpful and that it goes into a bit more detail than before. Is there enough detail in it, or do you accept that there has to be uncertainty because of the further discussions that have to take place? Should there be more certainty in the financial memorandum?

Some of these points come from the Dundee City Council submission, which is why I am focusing on it. In relation to the disposal of unsold goods, you make the point that no budget at all is put in for councils. Should it be?

Mr Jack, you said that a lot is going into residual waste. A figure somewhere said that 60 per cent of residual waste could have been recycled. It seems to me that where I live, in Glasgow, or in my part of Glasgow at least, some of the issue is due to a lack of education. People put things in a plastic bag and put the bag in the recycling bin, whereas, as I understand it, the plastic bag should not go into the recycling bin. The paper and cans should all be put in loose, so there is an education issue there.

There is also a bit of confusion between different councils, given that some of us live close to other council areas. My mother used to live in South Lanarkshire, which does things differently from Glasgow. It used to be the case that here in the Parliament, and in Edinburgh, you had to put both the plastic bottle and the top into the recycling bin, whereas in Glasgow you do not put the top in, only the bottle. There is a lot of confusion there, which presumably means that we need education.

On the other hand, there is a macho image, at least in Glasgow, that you do not put litter in the bin. That does not give you the right image—it is not cool—and you certainly do not split your rubbish up between different bins, because that is not cool either.

Can councils do more and should they have been doing more? Would it cost more if you were to start challenging those things?

Some people are fanatical. For example, my sister—I hope that she is not watching—takes the labels off jam jars, which I consider ridiculous.

Kirsty, will you comment?

That sounds positive. Charlie, is that level of involvement not possible in the cities?

I accept that that is a problem.

The final issue that I want to talk about is the proposal on littering from vehicles. I find it hard to get my head around how it could possibly work unless there is somebody with a camera photographing people who are dropping litter out of vehicles. What would the cost of that proposal be? The financial memorandum suggests that it could be self-financing. Is that possible?

To take another angle, I want to pick up your point that, in future, you might not be allowed to charge for the uplift of specific items such as garden waste. Glasgow has just started doing that, and I think that other councils have been doing it. Will you explain to us what the issue is?

Mr Jack, you referred to grey bins. I do not know what people can put into grey bins in your council area, but in mine grey bins are only for food. Could councils work together and have the same colours of bins? Would that help?

As a committee, we have to go back and say whether it is a good or a bad financial memorandum. Which do you think that we should say?

From a slightly different angle but on the same subject, the financial memorandum states that the costs that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency might get or need in relation to the disposal of unsold consumer goods range from £30,000 to £200,000, the latter being if it was more proactive. I find that interesting because it is a very wide range and it brings in the issue of being proactive, which I did not particularly see elsewhere in relation to either councils or anyone else. That raises the wider question of whether you want to be more proactive. Do you need to be more proactive, and would that really cost seven times more than if you did the minimum?