Reducing single use plastic

Scotland is leading the way in tackling marine litter, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told international delegates attending Scotland’s International Marine Conference today in Glasgow.

The First Minister announced a £175,200 campaign promoting the use of re-usable sanitary products to reduce the more than 100 billion pieces of sanitary waste disposed of every year.

In the coming weeks the Scottish Government will also publish proposals to make it an offence to throw litter overboard from all Scottish fishing vessels while at sea.

The First Minister said:

“Scotland continues to lead the way in protecting our marine environments and the size of Scotland’s marine protected area is testament to our commitment to protecting important habitats and species.

“This new campaign to promote re-usable sanitary products expands our existing efforts to tackle the problem of single use plastic. Following the successful introduction of legislation to ban plastic microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, we are the first in the UK to commit to a ban on plastic stemmed cotton buds.

“It is also important we tackle the smaller, but not insignificant, proportion of litter which comes from our marine industries. Our paper on the future of fisheries management will seek views on how we can ensure the fishing sector play their part in protecting the marine environment.”

Background

Scotland’s International Marine Conference 2019 is organised by Marine Scotland and is one of the 2017/2018 Programme for Government commitments.

The Scottish Government marine litter strategy was published in 2014.

The £175,200 funding is made up of Scottish Government funding and Zero Waste Scotland’s Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).