Introduction
Thank you for taking time to respond to this Scottish Government consultation. This guide gives you some suggested answers, but please feel free to add your own ideas.
The Scottish Government’s proposals are a good start, but don’t go nearly far enough to realising a truly circular economy. We need to re-programme our economy to extract less from the planet, re-use what we’ve already taken and reduce our waste. This requires many changes – we need to:
• Design products that last a long time, are easy to repair and can be used repeatedly
• Make new products from the materials in the things we no longer use
• Share and make better use of things like cars, tools, toys
• Regenerate our damaged natural systems
In order for this to happen, we need producers to be responsible for the whole life cycle of their products, we need a planned approach not only to recycling, but also to re-use and sharing and we need to incentivise the use of used and recycled materials so that they loop back into the system. Importantly, we need reduction targets focussing on the amount of raw materials that we use to drive this change.
The consultation has 21 questions, but you can choose to answer as many or as few as you like. Every contribution to the consultation will help shape the Government’s thinking and signal the demand for a circular economy across Scotland.
If you have any questions, please contact Phoebe Cochrane at phoebe@scotlink.org
The Consultation
Please open consultation here:
https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/circular-economy-proposals-for-legislation/
and click on ‘begin consultation’ at the bottom of the page
Work you way though sections 1 – 5, answering YES to Qs 1, 2, 4I, 4II, 5I, 5II, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20
For Q22, please add the following:
Although welcome, we do not consider that the proposals brought forward are sufficient.
We have climate and nature emergencies and the Scottish Government wants to ‘end our contribution to climate change’. UN Environment finds extractive industries are responsible for half the world’s carbon emissions and carbon footprint data shows that 84% of Scotland’s carbon footprint is derived from emissions embedded in goods we consume. Consumption of natural resources has tripled since the 1970s and is set to further double by 2060 according to research.
We feel that a Circular Economy Bill should set the framework to drive our economy to one that is more circular.
We would like to see the following additions to the current proposals:
1. Set ambitious targets to reduce consumption
• Scotland’s carbon footprint to reach net zero by 2050.
• Reduce key elements of our material footprint – metals, minerals and fossil fuel feedstocks – by 50% by 2030.
2. Place a duty on Scottish Ministers to report annually on Scotland’s progress towards these targets
3. Publish a Resources Reduction Plan, setting out how we are going to meet the targets.
4. Include measures to regenerate our natural systems, such as nutrient budgeting and a Soils Plan.
5. Increase manufacturers’ responsibilities such that they cover the costs of recovering their products for re-use or recycling.
6. Focus on hiring, sharing and repairing in public procurement.
7. Establish local share and reuse hubs