Single-use food containers and other single-use items: call for evidence

Introduction

20. The Scottish Parliament has set world-leading legally binding targets to reach net zero emissions by 2045 at the latest, with an interim 2030 target of a 75% reduction. The Scottish Government is also committed to ending Scotland's contribution to climate change within a generation and we have made strong progress to date and are over halfway to net-zero (51.5% emissions reduction from 1990 to 2019)^[9]. Tackling waste and ensuring that our consumption of resources is more sustainable is also a critical part of our efforts to tackle the nature crisis.

21. Moving to a more circular economy and reducing waste, in line with the waste hierarchy^[10], is one of the ways in which we will meet these targets. The waste hierarchy ranks waste management options according to the best environmental outcome taking into consideration the lifecycle of the material. When waste is created, it gives priority to preparing it for reuse, then recycling, then other recovery, and last of all disposal (i.e. landfill).

22. The Scottish Government is committed to implementing long-term initiatives to tackle our throwaway culture and encourage the move to a more circular economy. That is why we are taking actions such as:

• Introducing a new Circular Economy Bill in this parliamentary term to support and encourage reduction of consumption, reuse, repair and recycling to reduce waste;
• Banning the manufacture and supply of some of the most problematic single-use plastic products (subject to the impact of the UK Internal Market Act 2020);
• Implementing a Scotland wide deposit return scheme for drinks containers; and
• Working with the other administrations to introduce a reformed extended producer responsibility system for packaging.

23. This call for evidence will help facilitate the move to a more circular economy by providing an evidence base which will inform policy development on how to reduce consumption of single-use food containers. It will also be used to gather evidence on other single-use items used in Scotland to aid future decision making on actions that could be taken to reduce the impact they have on the Scottish environment. This is the first step in a comprehensive process to determine future policy decisions that will include further stakeholder engagement and public consultation.

24. Evidence gathered through this call for evidence will help broaden our evidence base, supplementing evidence already gathered from other stakeholder engagement, such as the Scottish Government's 2021 consultation on market restrictions on single-use plastic items.

25. There are a range of policy options available to reduce the environmental impact of single-use products such as bans, charges and encouraging voluntary action. Scottish Government action in this area will be driven by the Expert Panel on Environmental Charging and Other Measures (EPECOM) recommendations to ensure holistic policy design. EPECOM published 'Ending the Throwaway Culture: Five Principles for Tackling Single-use Items'^[11] in 2020, offering practical guidance to policy makers looking to take steps to reduce reliance on single-use items.

26. The Scottish Government is also committed to align with or go further than the standards of the EU Single-use Plastics Directive^[12]. The Directive specifies action to be taken against the ten single-use plastic items most commonly found on Europe's beaches^[13].

27. Article 4 of the EU Single-use Plastics Directive requires measures to be put in place to achieve an ambitious and sustained reduction in the consumption of single-use plastic food containers. Although this call for evidence focuses on single-use plastic food containers, it also asks for evidence on all single-use food containers, and other single-use products, in line with the waste hierarchy principles above of prioritising prevention and re-use over recycling and disposal.

28. Article 4 also requires an ambitious and sustained reduction in single-use cups for beverages, including their covers and lids. Following on from the findings of EPECOM^[14],the Scottish Government has previously confirmed its intention to introduce a charge on single use disposable beverage cups in Scotland and on 31 March 2022 announced the establishment of an advisory group to provide expertise and advice in order to inform policy implementation in this area.

Single-use

29. The definition of single-use for items in this exercise is "a product that is not conceived, designed or placed on the market to accomplish, within its life span, multiple trips or rotations by being returned to a producer for refill or re-used for the same purpose for which it was conceived".

30. Product design characteristics can help to determine whether a product should be considered as single or multiple-use. Whether a product is conceived, designed or placed on the market for reuse, can be assessed by considering the product's expected functional life, i.e. whether it is intended and designed to be used several times before final disposal, without losing product functionality, physical capacity or quality, and whether consumers typically conceive, perceive and use it as a reusable product.

31. Relevant product design characteristics include material composition, washability and reparability, which would allow multiple trips and rotations for the same purpose as for which the product was originally conceived. For a receptacle, which is packaging, its reusable nature can be determined in accordance with the essential requirements under Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, which was implemented in the UK by the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2015, including any declaration attesting to the conformity of the packaging with those essential requirements and related standards.

32. Further guidance on when a product can be considered single-use is provided in the guidance document published alongside the Scottish Government's single-use plastic regulations^[15].

Plastic

33. The definition of plastic used for this exercise is the definition used in the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021^[16]:

"plastic" means "a material consisting of a polymer as defined in Article 3(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)(2), to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which can function as main structural component of final products, with the exception of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified".