Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group minutes: November 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Anne Saunders, Marine Directorate       
• Karen Scoular, Marine Directorate         
• Bill Turrell, Marine Directorate      
• Anne Dagg, Zero Waste Delivery 
• Sophie Green, Zero Waste Scotland      
• Anneli Hill, Crown Estate Scotland         
• Jane Nelson, Scottish Islands Federation         
• Craig Fraser, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Lauren Smith, East Grampian Coastal Partnership
• Wendy Murray, Coastal Communities Network 
• Catherine Gemmell, Marine Conservation Society
• Arabelle Bentley, KIMO
• Jamie Clarkson, Fidra
• Innis Johnston, KIMO UK
• Fiona Gallie, Keep Scotland Beautiful
• Bess Homer, Scottish Water
• Mark Hartl, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland

Apologies

• Morag Campbell, Marine Directorate      
• Karen Hall, NatureScot     
• Julia Cant, KIMO UK         
• Candice Maharaj, 2050 Climate Group  
• Kirstin McEwan, 2050 Climate Group     
• Doreen Bell, Scottish Water
• Thomasina Glover, Islay Development Initiative
• Heather McFarlane, Fidra
• Caroline Hutton, Transport Scotland
• Heather McLaughlin, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Items and actions

Introductions and new representatives

In previous meetings, the group decided that there should be representation from the Local Coastal Partnerships (LCPs). The LCPs agreed that the East Grampian Coastal Partnership should represent them. Lauren Smith was introduced to group.

There were some stand-ins for the usual representatives at this meeting: Jamie Clarkson for Fidra, Fiona Gallie for Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), and Innis Johnston for KIMO UK.

JN informed the group that one of the two usual representatives from the Scottish Islands Federation (SIF) has now left their post, and JN was standing in for this meeting.

SG advised that she would represent Zero Waste Scotland from now onwards. 

Malcolm Morrison has left the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF), and a new staff member will be in place as a regular representative for the next meeting.

Actions from the previous meeting

Action 1 - AC volunteered to check with colleagues working on waste management and will follow up. This was in relation to the issue at Barry Buddon which WM raised about a suspected historic landfill site releasing waste into the marine environment. AC left her role shortly after our last meeting. AD is now representing Zero Waste Delivery. AD and KS have discussed the issue and AD will follow up with colleagues working on waste management policy to see if they have anything to add to SEPA’s update within Action 2 below. 

Action 2 - CF will speak with colleagues working on landfill and will follow up. CF has spoken with local teams, and they have confirmed they have been engaging with WM as well as other stakeholders including local authorities to try and resolve this issue. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious source for this waste at present. SEPA is confident that any waste isn’t originating from a landfill under their jurisdiction and they’ve asked the local authorities to continue investigating their respective areas for potential sources. CF confirmed that the local team are the best people to take this forward.

Action 3 - KS will request an update for the objective: “Use of Fishing for Litter initiative data to evaluate industry engagement”. This work is ongoing. In smaller ports it is not always possible to weigh the litter collected. At the moment, the evaluation is qualitative. Demand for the project is very high, KIMO will be looking at quantitative analysis in the future.

MLS Action Plan discussion

Strategic direction 1 - Improve public and business attitudes and behaviours around marine and coastal litter, in co-ordination with the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy

Objective: Encourage positive behaviour and deter littering and flytipping

Zero Waste Delivery

• the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy (NLFS) was published in Summer 2023, the team have been working with delivery partners to progress the action plan
• the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy Delivery Group has been established, the first meeting was on 1 November 2023
• he NLFS included a commitment to increase the flytipping Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) to £500, this has been actioned and the Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) laid. The new FPN level comes into force on 1 January 2024 

Objective: Improve waste management in the fishing and aquaculture sector

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• a draft of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) standard was open for public comments and this closed at the end of October. Comments are currently being considered by convenors of the working group
• there have been various stages to go through, however the group is moving closer to a finalised version. What will be produced will be a six part standard, and it will be voluntary, as are all standards. The standard will be applicable for companies wishing to trade in Europe

Objective: Improve waste management for collected marine litter

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• this is a long-term ongoing action, progress will be made as and when opportunities arise

Objective: Reduce sewage related debris through a behavioural change campaign

Scottish Water

• the Nature Calls customer awareness campaign has recently gone out on TV, radio, social media and out of house advertising. Scottish Water has been mapping sewer choke data to focus the localised Nature Calls campaigns to reduce blockages and protect the environment. Work has also been done with Plastic Free Helensburgh, assessing what they are finding on beaches
• the key message is to “bin the wipes”, “only flush the 3Ps” and calling for customers to support a ban on wipes containing plastic

Strategic direction 2 - Reduce marine and coastal based sources of litter, with a focus on the most problematic sources, in coordination with land sourced litter being reduced by the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy

Objective: Reduce plastic pellet loss into the marine environment

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• the OSPAR biannual meeting will take place, 28-30 November. MC will attend in her role as co-convenor. Guidance on spill clean-up has been produced, and work is being done at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for the same issue
• guidance on pellet handling for companies was issued in summer, and its effectiveness will need to be evaluated over the next year
• UK companies are using the British Standard Institute’s (BSI) public standard and Scottish Government will look at how that can be used if the EU scheme is not workable or applicable

Objective: Improve the ability of the fishing industry to retrieve lost fishing gear from the sea

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• this action is ongoing, the Clean Seas team is working with colleagues elsewhere in Marine Directorate on this long term action  
• an update on the CEN standard was given within strategic direction 1

Objective: Reduce sources of sewage-related debris (SRD)

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• the UK wide consultation on the proposed ban on wet wipes containing plastic will close on 25 November 2023
• a link to the consultation on the Defra website was shared

Scottish Water

• the next annual update for the Improving Urban Waters Routemap will be published in December. Details about the improvements for water quality, improving monitoring of spills and reducing sewage related debris can be found on the Scottish Water site

Strategic direction 3 - Support the removal of marine litter from the marine and coastal environment

Objective: Reduce the cost of disposal of collected marine litter

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• Marine Directorate is still looking to work with Glasgow City Council to progress work here 

Objective: Increase the number of rivers in Scotland with co-ordinated projects to reduce litter levels, including removal

Keep Scotland Beautiful

• in September KSB had a successful Source2Sea week and they’re now committed to building Upstream Battle nationally, as well as continuing activities and engagement along the Clyde and Tay Rivers. As part of building the national programme they are keen to hear from the group and other stakeholders if they have activity planned they can collaborate on, or add value to
• over the next few months KSB will be rolling out the Marine Litter Art Competition across Tayside, getting in entries for the National STEM the Flow pilot, taking part in a team “data day” along the Clyde Walkway, and building Upstream Battle in a box, supporting communities to run their own “Upstream Battle” along their local rivers

Objective: Expansion of the Fishing for Litter project

KIMO

• KIMO’s Fishing for Litter Project currently has 32 harbours participating in Scotland, which has increased from 20 since November 2021. KIMO are currently working on securing others so demand is still high
• nine vessels have been added since the last report, with a total of 332 vessels now registered. Work continues on collecting and updating this data as they work towards their target for 2025. KIMO are still working on obtaining information from the most recently added harbours
• total tonnage collected to date is 118 tonnes up to end August 2023 – so the project should exceed the total collected last year of 138 tonnes. KIMO have worked on their tonnage spreadsheets to include the newly added harbours
• effective from 1 October KIMO have engaged the services of a liaison person to carry out visits, and make an initial assessment of how well the project works in each harbour. One person has been appointed and appointing several other roles is imminent. They will be responsible for visiting each harbour in the area assigned to them, obtaining feedback, checking the correct usage of the skips, make sure all fishermen eligible to participate know of the scheme and working on ways to improve engagement as well as establishing relationships with Fishermen’s Associations in those areas
• KIMO have also engaged services of Solway Firth Partnership to provide Liaison for Stranraer and Kirkcudbright and building contact with Port William as a potential member
• KIMO are looking at additional staffing to enable them to concentrate their efforts on the potential for recycling projects, react to any outcomes from increased harbour visits and to work on the education side of the project. They also want to ensure the quality is maintained as the project grows  

Objective: Support the installation of riverine litter removal technology in the River Clyde

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• Glasgow City Council have identified the most suitable location for a boom to be sited. At the moment, they are looking to identify the owner of the river wall at this location and pre-installation surveys will take place in due course

Strategic direction 4 - Improve monitoring at a Scottish scale and develop measures for strategy evaluation

Objective: Use of Fishing for Litter initiative data to evaluate industry engagement

KIMO

• a recent visit was carried out to Peterhead Harbour to meet with the new Harbour Master, and Head of Fishing – Commercial, to explain how the scheme works. Peterhead is the project’s largest contributor so it’s important to ensure the continued support following change of staffing
• FfL in the UK is managed and operated by KIMO UK, and FfL staff attended the KIMO UK AGM in Inverness, delivering a presentation to the Board, where there is a large number of new members. Their support to help increase awareness across the local councils is invaluable, and to also look for additional harbours within their areas

Objective: Accurate assessments of marine plastics in Scottish waters

Marine Directorate (Science)

• the OSPAR Quality Status Report (QSR) 2023 has been published

Objective: Development of an agreed methodology for inter-tidal microplastic monitoring

MASTS

• MH remains in contact with the Marine Directorate about this ongoing work

Objective: Social science evaluation of the Marine Litter Strategy

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• this report has been published on the Scottish Government website

Objective: Understanding Scottish island beach litter

Action 1 – KS to ask for update on this as JN had left the meeting

Marine Conservation Society

• the MCS Data Officer provided new analysis for SIF for the Marine Scotland report
• MCS delivered Beachwatch training for the new SIF officers and continue to work closely on supporting the successful beach clean series and data analysis. They are currently seeking funding to be able to continue this work
• the Data Officer has finished the Autumn analysis for SIF and MCS have agreed to include all islands and follow Scottish Government’s island groupings for better reporting

Strategic direction 5 - Maintain and strengthen stakeholder co-ordination in Scotland, the UK, EU and globally

Objective: Expand communications and understanding of Marine Litter Strategy work with delivery partners

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• AS attended the KSB strategy launch event in September
• AS spoke at the Solway Firth Partnership conference on 17 November, covering the Scottish Government’s strategy and policy work. AS will give a similar presentation to the Tay Estuary forum on 28 November
• AS supported the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Ms Slater, at the MCS Great British Beach Clean event at Silverknowes, Edinburgh

Action 2 – LS offered to find out if there may be future events and opportunities for engagement with the LCPs  

Action 3 – LS will share the East Coast Plan outcome once it has been finalised

Objective: Build on and strengthen working relationships with wider UK

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government regarding negotiations on UN plastic treaty

Objective: Increase engagement with OSPAR (which includes the European Commission) through: participation in and implementation of the Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter; and taking a lead role with relevant actions

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• Scottish Government continues to lead on a number of actions within the OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter, and is progressing work on pellets and aquaculture gear as per updates above

Objective: Strengthen co-ordination across the British-Irish Council region

Marine Directorate (Policy)

• workplans for working groups are being reconsidered at the moment. There will be a meeting in December where this will be discussed

Additional updates from Marine Directorate

Marine Fund Scotland (MFS)

• the first round of funding for this financial year opened in May. There were several applications relating to marine litter
• AB asked if there had been any indication on whether multiyear funding will be offered in future, as many projects depend upon this money. AS advised that MFS remains a yearly fund at present. The group will be informed of any changes if they arise

Marine Directorate (Science)

• floating microplastics monitoring is currently experiencing delays owing to the loss of laboratory facilities at the Aberdeen site. Laboratory space at Aberdeen University is being made available, and processes are underway to replace these, but there will be a backlog in the processing of samples
• seabed litter monitoring using fish stock surveys is ongoing
• on beach litter research, monitoring data from Scottish Islands and west coast mainland was published showing the contribution made by marine industries, especially fishing
• a recently published paper
• one of the PhD students working with the Marine Directorate has successfully defended their thesis at SAMS (Scottish Association for Marine Science), entitled “Understanding the source and distribution of marine macro-plastics in coastal environments”
• it is hoped that the final chapter of their thesis will form a third paper in the series, where mapped demersal fishing intensity is used as a proxy for fishing plastic release and this is incorporated into the west coast beach litter model
• by using the monitoring results the model could be tuned and this was used to compute an estimate of the amount of small (< 1kg) plastic items (i.e., rope and net parts) originating from the fishing industry per year on the west coast

Additional updates from members

Members gave updates on other litter related work they are conducting and planning.

Discussion on resuming publishing MLSSG meeting notes

• the group agreed to resume the publishing of meeting minutes on the Scottish Government website
• the Scottish Government’s website underwent upgrades in 2020. Minutes of meetings which took place prior to this, can be viewed on an archived version of the website

Action 4 – KS to share archived pages weblink with the group. 

Any other business

No AOB points were raised.

Next meeting date

The group agreed to meet again in mid/late March. A poll will be sent out nearer the time.