Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021: islands communities impact assessment - final

Policy objectives and intended outcomes

6. The Scottish Government is committed to tackling our throwaway culture, in line with the vision set out in Making Things Last. Action has already been taken to place market restrictions on plastic microbeads and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in Scotland and the Scottish Government is now looking to go beyond this to address additional items. This assessment therefore considers the potential impacts on islands communities of a restriction of the following single use plastic products:

• Single-use plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks);
• Single-use plastic plates;
• Single-use plastic straws;
• Single-use plastic beverage stirrers;
• Single-use plastic balloon sticks;
• Single-use food containers made of expanded polystyrene;
• Single-use cups and other beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, including their covers and lids;

7. These items are included in article 5 (restrictions on placing on market) of the EU directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (2019/904) ("the single-use plastics directive").

8. The following definitions, taken from the directive are applied to this ICIA:

• 'Plastic' means a material consisting of a polymer as defined in point 5 of article 3 of regulation (EC) no. 1907/2006, to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which can function as a main structural component of final products, with the exception of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified;
• 'Single-use plastic product' means a product that is made wholly or partly from plastic and 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;