Cargo revolution on the Forth & Clyde

A cargo of waste has become the first cargo to be carried on Scotland's revolutionary Falkirk Wheel.

The 20-ton shipment from Ratho, near Edinburgh, to Glasgow was also the first on the Union Canal for 70 years, and could mark the revival of the long-lost carrying tradition on the Forth & Clyde Canal. The cargo was loaded by Encore Environmental Aggregates, which recycles waste from road construction.

It customarily uses lorries to transport the waste between its Edinburgh and Glasgow depots - but now, encouraged by British Waterways, the firm is considering making more use of the revived canal link. If the experiment proves a success, hundreds of lorries could be removed from Scotland's roads.

All across Britain, small-scale projects are encouraging a gradual return of freight to the waterways. Aggregates are now being moved on the Grand Union Canal in West London; a cardboard-recycling scheme is being piloted in Birmingham; and new cargoes have been proposed for the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

Though almost all of Britain's canals were built for freight, Scotland's Union Canal has a more colourful cargo-carrying history than most. Cadavers were once transported along the canal to the Edinburgh University medical school - and the city's notorious murderers Burke and Hare were initially employed as 'navvies' digging out the canal.