Market restrictions on single-use plastic items: consultation analysis

Footnotes

1. Scottish Government (2020) Protecting Scotland, Renewing Scotland. The Government's Programme for Scotland 2020–2021. See page 54.

2. Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/904/oj.

3. Scottish Government (2020) Introducing market restrictions on single-use plastic items in Scotland.

4. Scottish Government (2020) Protecting Scotland, Renewing Scotland. The Government's Programme for Scotland 2020–2021. See page 54.

5. Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/904/oj.

6. Scottish Government (2020) Introducing market restrictions on single-use plastic items in Scotland.

7. Note that there were five additional questions which respondents could answer on the environmental impact of the proposals. Findings from the analysis of responses to these questions are not covered in this report, but will be incorporated into a revised strategic environmental assessment.

8. Campaign responses were reviewed by the Scottish Government, and confirmed to be identical with regard to the substance of the text submitted. No independent verification of the number or nature of the campaign responses was undertaken by the analysts.

9. Question 1c was omitted from the online questionnaire.

10. British Standards Institution’s PAS 9017:2020.

10. Water UK website.

11. Included in this group were a small number of individuals (and one organisation) who answered ‘yes’ to seven out of the eight questions at 1(a), but who left just one item in the list blank, rather than answering ‘no’. Comments from these respondents suggested that they fully supported the Scottish Government proposals to ban single-use plastics. In these cases, the respondents may have intended to tick ‘yes’ to all eight questions.

12. Given the small number of respondents answering Question 1(c), the findings for the closed question are not presented in a table.

13. Note – no attempt has been made to confirm whether these items are, in fact, made of oxo-degradable plastic.

14. See https://wrap.org.uk/content/the-uk-plastics-pact.

15. Fine to Flush is the Water UK standard for identifying which wet wipes can be safely flushed down a toilet. See the Water UK website.

16. The French proposals also included plans to regulate ‘biodegradable’ claims on products and packaging, and require a plastic microfibre filter in all washing machines, both of which were referred to frequently in the responses to Question 5.

17. The Scottish Government’s Circular Economy Bill includes legislative measures to cut litter and waste and forms part of wider plans for a new approach to reducing, reusing and recycling materials to help drive Scotland’s circular economy. The Bill was consulted on in 2019, but its introduction to Parliament was subsequently delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.