By Phoebe Cochrane, Sustainable Economy Officer at Scottish Environment LINK
It has been a long journey for those of us in the environmental NGO sector who have been campaigning for a circular economy bill. The 2016 SNP manifesto included a commitment to a circular economy bill and the funding of our Circular Economy for a Fairer Footprint project by Friends Provident Foundation in 2018 enabled LINK to focus on making sure this bill was delivered.
Various LINK members were already working on specific aspects of circular economy, such as the Marine Conservation Society on measures that would reduce marine litter, Fidra on chemicals, Friends of the Earth Scotland on incineration, and APRS who were leading the Have You Got the Bottle campaign for a Deposit Return Scheme.
Beyond this, the increasing realisation that it is the sheer scale of our consumption of materials, and the associated habitat destruction and pollution, that is at the heart of the nature and climate crises, meant that a more circular economy had become of interest across the environmental NGO sector.
So we put our minds to thinking about what should be in a circular economy bill. Internal thinking, a number of scoping papers and considerable discussion led us to the conclusion that much of what needed to change could be done with existing powers – i.e. primary legislation wasn’t needed. However, the main thing that was missing was a setting of direction and a framework to drive action, like the climate change legislation does through the statutory greenhouse gas reduction targets and associated Climate Change Plan.
In Summer of 2019 we published a paper – A Call for a Strong Circular Economy Bill for Scotland. In it, we stressed the link between raw material consumption and the nature and climate crises and laid out our key asks of a bill: consumption reduction targets, reporting duties, a 5 yearly plan on delivery of the targets, a committee to provide advice, a duty on public bodies, and action on specific problematic materials. This paper was supported by a number of LINK members and other organisations who became members of an informal coalition, ‘Circular Scotland’.
In November 2019, Scottish Government published and consulted on proposals for a circular economy bill, which fell well short of what we were campaigning for. We were not altogether surprised as our engagement with government had revealed a lack of appetite for the type of measures we wanted to see. We responded to the consultation and published a guide to help others respond.
Then COVID-19 arrived and on 2nd April, Roseanna Cunningham, the then Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, announced that the Circular Economy Bill would not be progressed due to COVID 19 and the necessary prioritisation of legislation. We were told ‘We are grateful for all your input into the development of our legislative proposals. This will still be available and ready to use, should similar legislation be brought forward in the future.’ For a while we focussed on getting circularity embedded into other policies, such as the COVID Recovery Plan and the Climate Change Plan, and the National Strategy for Economic Transformation; as well as engaging in the development of single-use plastic bans and litter strategies.
In terms of the Bill, it felt like we were back to square one. LINK included a circular economy bill with consumption reduction targets in our asks for party manifestos for the 2021 Holyrood election (and we were largely successful). Following the election, and the appointment of a Minister with Circular Economy in her title, we began to feel more hopeful.
In April 2022, we published an updated version of our paper calling for a Strong Circular Economy Bill for Scotland. Our main asks remained the setting of targets to drive consumption reduction and an associated plan; with additional duties on public bodies; but we also included various measures that, although they didn’t need primary legislation, we wanted to use the Bill to speed up their delivery – things like banning single use cutlery or crockery from closed loop settings (eg cafes, airports, conference centres), requiring retailers to take back end-of-life products, phasing out non-essential single use items, planning for the circularity of transition minerals; and, not forgetting the bioeconomy and the ‘restorative’ aspect of circularity, nutrient budgeting and other commitments on soils.
In May 2022, Scottish Government published new proposals for a circular economy bill and, in parallel, a draft route map which included planned circular economy actions that didn’t need legislation. This second iteration of proposals for a bill was much more comprehensive in that it included the provisions for setting targets, reporting and a 5 yearly strategy, with an emphasis on reducing consumption of materials, as well as a few additional measures. Our response highlighted areas where we felt the bill could go further.
The Circular Economy Bill was introduced to parliament by Lorna Slater, Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, in June 2023. The Net Zero Energy and Transport Committee scrutinised the bill, calling for written evidence and views. LINK responded and several of us were also invited to give oral evidence. We were pleased that the Committee’s report included most of the points that we made, although the Minister’s response suggested that only a few would be considered for Government amendments.
Having already been thinking about and drawing up specific amendments to the draft bill, we were ready to start working with MSPs on a number of amendments during Stage 2. All was set for the Stage 2 debate when the Bute House Agreement was abruptly terminated and the Greens left Government, including the Minister responsible for the Bill. We were unsure of what the ramifications of this might be.
Luckily the hiatus was short-lived and Gillian Martin MSP took over the Bill and Stages 2 and 3 progressed. Due to a huge amount of work, the voting on amendments at Stages 2 and 3 saw a good proportion of the amendments that we had been working on being adopted. These strengthened the bill in a number of ways, including:
- The waste hierarchy, Just Transition Principles, product stewardship plans, international impact, and education and skills included as matters that must be considered in producing the mandatory circular economy strategy;
- Reducing the life-cycle carbon impacts of goods and materials included as an aim in developing the strategy and setting the targets;
- Managing waste in Scotland as an aim in developing the strategy and setting the targets;
- Strengthened reporting requirements;
- Prioritising sectors and systems based on environmental impact.
So, the Circular Economy Bill was a long journey with ups and downs, lulls and periods of frenetic activity. Working on the Bill involved workshops, a public opinion survey, and a film and petition, and consultation response guides, as well as lots of written submissions; and, very importantly, working with others. Successes were definitely a team effort – working with LINK members and with other organisations. In particular, Kim Pratt from Friends of the Earth Scotland worked tirelessly on the Bill, Miriam from LINK and other creative colleagues helped with comms, and James MacKenzie from APRS was a huge help with amendments.
The Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill was passed on 26th June 2024. A milestone indeed; but for most of the measures to come into effect, secondary legislation is needed. It is a painfully slow process when there is such urgency. However, for now we should be glad we have a circular economy bill, maybe not perfect but one that is much the better for our involvement.
Please see the project webpage if you are interested in seeing any of the outputs from this project – there are many I haven’t mentioned in this blog.