Developing Scotland's circular economy - proposals for legislation: analysis of responses

Annex 2: Friends of the Earth Scotland campaign text

I am writing to respond to your consultation on Developing Scotland's circular economy: Proposals for legislation. Please treat my email as an individual response.

Given the climate emergency, I am very concerned about our overconsumption of resources and believe we urgently need to transform the way we consume and manage resources in Scotland, including massively reducing the amount of waste we produce.

In order to do this I want to see Scotland moving towards a circular economy where materials are kept circulating around the economy for as long as possible before they become waste.

Therefore I fully support the Scottish Government's proposals outlined in this consultation to set charges for environmentally harmful items, require mandatory public reporting of business waste and surplus, place additional requirements on local authorities and individuals to increase rates and quality of recycling of household items, set powers to introduce a new fixed-penalty regime for littering from vehicles, and increasing the minimum single-use carrier bag charge from 5p to 10p.

However, I seek assurance that the Scottish Government's forthcoming Circular Economy Bill will also:

• Include robust targets to tackle our overconsumption of resources including: reducing our carbon footprint to net zero by 2050, reducing our material footprint by 50% from 2020 to 2030 for minerals, metals and fossil fuel feedstocks, and an obligation to create a biomass strategy.
• Set a duty on ministers to report annually on progress towards these targets.
• Introduce a Resources Reduction Plan to be updated every 5 years with policies and other instruments to steer our economy towards meeting the targets.

I also support the full proposals outlined in Scottish Environment LINK's 'Call for a Strong Circular Economy Bill for Scotland' and note a move to a true circular economy could save Scotland 11 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2050.

Scotland's material consumption accounts for 68-74% of its entire carbon footprint and therefore I urge you to go further than the proposals and set ambitious targets which will help Scotland tackle climate change and our wasteful use of resources.