It had been painstakingly cleared with care from a myriad of shorelines around Oban, Lorn and the Isles.

However, Argyll and Bute Council was under fire yesterday after fly-tipping the mountain of marine plastic collected by an army of dedicated volunteers.

The council had agreed to store the waste, which poses a danger to wildlife and can’t go through normal recycling channels while the volunteers work towards a new initiative aimed at stopping it going to landfill.

But when space at the council yard filled up, a council worker took the waste, which had been meticulously sorted and graded by the volunteers, and dumped it indiscriminately on open land the local authority owns beside Oban airport.

Now, as planes come in to land, the bird’s eye view of the North Argyll coastline includes the mass of rubbish, which includes plastics, fishing nets and fish farm piping.

The haul, even more disturbingly, includes the same kind of banding straps which led to an entangled stag being put down on the isle of Jura earlier this month.

As reports of fly tipping were reported by members of the public, Janie Steele, of Dunbeg, Oban, who has been co-ordinating the volunteer shore clean efforts, said she was very disappointed at what had happened.

She said she had been informed that there was a space problem at the council yard but had been told that the waste would be carefully packed and moved into a storage container near the airport.

Miss Steele stressed yesterday that the group had been really grateful for the council’s earlier help in storing the waste but added that it was unfortunate that one driver had then dumped it on the ground.

She said: “It’s a fact that it’s been dumped, I was really upset. We had sorted it into different types of plastic and materials but it has been dumped in a oner, it includes some of those strapping bands that caused the death of the stag on Jura.

“When I got there and saw it, there were just bottles streaming about, they had fly-tipped it.”

“This was a big community effort over time, it was about 50-60 cubic metres of waste. Lots of people were involved in the clean-ups.

“Dozens of people were involved, there is waste from Oban and Lorn, the Sound of Kerrera, Tiree and from a remote beach on Mull.

“People really care about this, not just in Oban and Lorn, but in the wider community, there are groups all over the place.”

She said they used to send marine plastic waste to a company in the south of England who recycled it but since that had stopped they had been relying on the council’s help in storing it until they find another alternative to it being sent to landfill.

Shane Wasik, of Basking Shark Scotland, who organised a boat to take volunteers to one of the beach cleans on Mull, said: “So much effort went into us doing it and if there’s a wind you don’t want it all being blown back into the bay.

“It needs to be a joint effort, the council have been helpful in the past and it would be good if Argyll and Bute Council had some proper facility where beach clean-up stuff could be put.”

He added: “We need people to move this on, to recycle the waste into other stuff.”

Oban Councillor Roddy McCuish said: “Given the danger to wildlife I would be urging the council to make sure this waste is secure or to get it moved as soon as possible.

“It gives the wrong impression to all the volunteers who have been very active in removing this litter from our beaches.”

An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson said: “The plastic was collected during volunteer beach cleans organised by a local group.

“We supported them by storing the debris until they could move it on for recycling.

“The ongoing work at Jackson’s Quarry means our normal storage spaces are full, which is why we moved it to North Connel.

“We had hoped to have a container ready, but unfortunately one was not available. We are doing our best to arrange for one now.

“Our thanks to all the Argyll and Bute volunteers who regularly give up their time to remove plastic pollution from our beautiful local beaches.”