National Litter and Flytipping Strategy

2 Evidence

2.1 Scale and impact of littering and flytipping in Scotland

The review of the 2014 National Litter Strategy^[10] identified that during the five year lifespan of the strategy a wide range of work had been undertaken by Scottish Government and its partner organisations to reduce litter and flytipping.

However, the scale and impact of litter and flytipping continues to pose a significant challenge. This was the conclusion of a Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) report in 2020^[11], which evidenced an ongoing decline in local environmental quality across Scotland and is backed by the most recent KSB annual Scottish Litter survey, which assesses public attitudes and perceptions to litter and littering behaviour^[12].

The latest survey results highlight that 67% of respondents believe that litter is a problem in their local area while 87% believe that it is a Scotland-wide problem^[13]. The survey also indicates a possible correlation between deprivation and the distribution of litter with 81% of respondents residing in the most deprived fifth of neighbourhoods reporting that they see litter often in their local area compared to 68% of those residing in the least deprived areas. Further research suggests the gap in litter levels between the most and least deprived areas is widening^[14].

This survey also found that when people were asked who was responsible for preventing litter, 60% of respondents deemed individuals and consumers ‘entirely responsible’ for the prevention of littering. Furthermore, the results demonstrated significant support for initiatives focused on preventing littering, especially improved waste disposal facilities and education and awareness campaigns.

The national Local Environmental Auditing and Monitoring System (LEAMS) data for 2021/22 also demonstrates that litter continues to be a challenge for communities across Scotland, showing an increase in the number of locations with significant amounts of litter present, with urban local authorities observing the biggest decline in local environmental quality.

During 2021/22, 89 individual audits were undertaken by both local authorities and Keep Scotland Beautiful, covering 12,803 individual sites assessed for local environmental quality. Findings continue to show that litter is a widespread issue on hard standing areas, open spaces and road verges, observed on four out of every five sites audited. Furthermore, significant and highly visible litter issues were affecting one in ten sites with evidence that these are more commonly affecting areas of highest deprivation and more densely populated land types^[15].

There are over 60,000 incidents of flytipping reported each year in Scotland^[16], costing over £10 million of public money to clear up^[17]. Data is currently collected in a number of different ways including local authorities’ internal systems, the Litter Monitoring System (LMS**) and reporting via Waste Data Flow^[18]. The use of multiple systems across Scotland and inconsistencies in how data is collected and reported through these systems currently serve as a barrier to understanding the full scale of flytipping across the country.

Improving the consistency and quality of data collection is a cross-cutting theme of this Strategy and work to develop a baseline against which to monitor progress towards reducing flytipping will be prioritised.

Available evidence suggests that litter and flytipping pollution can affect population-level physical and mental health too^[19], alongside the more visible deterioration in quality of areas where people live and use key services.

Beyond those population-level impacts, pollution caused by the escape of materials into the environment can damage ecosystems, impacting on fragile biodiversity systems including wildlife which rely on clean land, water and air^[20]. This has been recognised in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 15), which has set 23 global targets for action by 2030, one of which is to reduce the global footprint of consumption through substantially reducing waste generation^[21].

In addition, the majority of marine litter is estimated to originate from land-based sources with more than 90% of ocean plastic a result of littering on land^[22]. This Strategy aims to address the issue of marine litter at source by working with existing initiatives such as Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean and Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle Campaign to improve the quality and consistency of citizen science reporting to aid data collection and future policy development.

Alongside these significant impacts, flytipping and littering also place financial burdens on residents, landowners and the public and private sectors. It is estimated that £60.7 million of public money is spent each year by local authorities on a combination of clean- up, education and enforcement activities with an additional £21 million spent by other public and private bodies^[23]. Further indirect costs due to environmental, economic and social impacts to the terrestrial and marine environments are estimated to exceed £196.7 million, bringing the total annual cost of dealing with litter and flytipping in Scotland to £280.8 million^[24].

This does not include costs borne by private landowners and land managers who clear and dispose of any material flytipped on their land.

2.2 Key drivers

While the considerable impacts of litter and flytipping are often the focus, it is also important to examine the causes so those can be addressed. What we consume and throw away are the main factors in litter and flytipping. Our current linear economy of ‘take-make-dispose’ results in products and materials reaching the end of their life with little to no perceived value, often resulting in them becoming “uncontrolled leaks”, rather than having further use within a more circular economy. Any actions to help ensure materials circulate in the economy for longer have the potential to reduce the amounts of damage done by litter and flytipping. The contribution of litter and flytipping to the climate emergency and biodiversity and pollution crises make it vital that we act now.

Material consumption and waste are the primary drivers of nearly every environmental problem we currently face. Through the Strategy and wider work to promote a circular economy in Scotland, we want to challenge the current approach to production and consumption by improving product design, mainstreaming reuse and repair and incentivising more sustainable choices.

This Strategy offers the opportunity to tackle contributory factors and restore public confidence that appropriate measures are being taken to prevent and address litter and flytipping.

All of the actions set out in this Strategy are closely linked to ongoing developments by the Scottish Government and our partners to reduce waste, promote reuse and recycling and ensure appropriate disposal of waste.

A range of transformational measures are already in place or underway to promote responsible consumption and production and to tackle Scotland’s throwaway culture, including bans on problematic single-use plastic items, a commitment to introduce a charge on single-use cups, a commitment to introducing a Deposit Return Scheme, reform of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging and a £70 million investment in local authority recycling infrastructure.

The Circular Economy Bill^[***] will also establish the legislative framework to support Scotland’s transition to a zero waste and circular economy, significantly increase reuse and recycling rates, and modernise and improve waste and recycling services.

The Bill includes specific provisions in respect of litter and flytipping: a new penalty regime to address littering from vehicles, powers to seize vehicles involved in specified waste crime, and strengthened household duty of care responsibilities in relation to household waste in order to help prevent flytipping^[****].

Further detail is provided in Section 3, however, a key aim of the relevant Bill provisions is to deliver a stronger, more consistent flytipping enforcement regime through the introduction of powers to seize vehicles linked to waste crime.

In addition, the introduction of fixed penalty notices for householders who do not comply with existing obligations in relation to household waste will aid in the prevention of flytipping where an offence is traced back to a particular household, and raise awareness of householder responsibilities when disposing of waste.

The Scottish Government is also working with other UK governments and regulators to implement a UK-wide mandatory digital waste tracking service. This service will replace the current, fragmented and largely paper- based reporting systems and make it much easier and less time consuming for legitimate waste companies to comply with reporting requirements, whilst making it much harder for rogue operators to compete in the industry and commit waste crime including flytipping.

This year marks our final preparations for packaging EPR before it goes live in a phased approach from 2024 across the UK. EPR will drive more sustainable packaging, provide clearer labelling for consumers, and deliver direct benefits to local authorities. Packaging EPR will support the delivery of services by requiring producers to pay authorities the full net costs of running efficient and effective kerbside collection services for household packaging waste.

Later this year, the Scottish Government will also publish a final Waste Route Map setting out how we will work with others to deliver our system-wide, comprehensive vision for Scotland’s circular economy. It will outline the tangible actions the Scottish Government and others must take to accelerate progress, and the tools we will put in place to enable everyone to play their part.

In addition, we remain committed to introducing a Deposit Return Scheme which will increase recycling rates of single-use drinks containers and reduce littering.

These broader commitments to achieving a more circular economy will play a critical role in preventing and reducing litter and flytipping. However, we know there is more to do and new or emerging challenges to address. In tandem with our overarching strategy and policies to promote recycling and reduce the unnecessary use of disposable products, we must also respond to emerging issues, an example of which is ongoing work to examine the environmental impact of single-use vapes. Zero Waste Scotland were commissioned to review the environmental impact and potential policy options for improving the management of single-use vapes and we will work with stakeholders to consider the findings of the report.

2.3 Learning lessons and building on what works

In developing this Strategy we have identified factors which either supported or limited delivery of the previous National Litter Strategy to inform our future approach.

Scotland published its first National Litter Strategy in 2014^[26]. A review of this strategy, and the activity that took place as a result, was undertaken in collaboration with key partners and completed in November 2019^[27].

Several areas of success were identified, along with good practice case studies and some initial views on the focus for this new strategy.

The review found that significant progress has been made in a number of areas, including:

• The strategy, and update to the Code of Practice on Litter and Flytipping (2018), provided a shift in focus from clearance to prevention.
• An increase in opportunities for reuse and recycling, making it easier to dispose of waste responsibly.
• The introduction of the Litter Monitoring System, providing enhanced evidence of the littering problem.

The review also demonstrated that wide- ranging collaborative work has been carried out across Scotland to tackle the issues of litter and flytipping. It confirmed the importance of sustained, co-ordinated and collaborative action and the need for clearer ownership of the new Strategy to help partners and stakeholders understand their contribution and the implication for them. In developing this new Strategy, the Scottish Government has worked closely with a range of organisations to ensure a common understanding and identified a range of collaborative actions that will help deliver its vision.

To build on existing progress and partnerships, the Scottish Government has also established a National Flytipping Forum, convened by the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, to enable ongoing engagement between policy makers and stakeholders on key issues and to support co-ordinated action to tackle flytipping.

The Forum will discuss the implementation of key actions of this Strategy, including opportunities for joint working across organisations to address ongoing barriers and challenges for delivery.

The Scottish Government is also a member of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce, which recognises the threat of organised environmental crime to communities in Scotland. Waste crime has a serious and detrimental impact on the environment, communities and compliant businesses. A wide range of organisations are represented on the Taskforce, which aims to divert, deter, detect and disrupt organised crime by making better use of strategic threat assessments and ensuring that all partner bodies utilise their full range of powers.

Another example of successful partnership working is the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, led by Police Scotland and its regional partnerships, including some local authorities, which is establishing closer working relationships to tackle issues such as rural waste crime. The successes, learning and best practice from this partnership will continue to inform and shape delivery of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy.

Despite these achievements, the review of the previous strategy confirmed that littering and flytipping are deep rooted problems that require a refreshed approach, including tailored interventions, and further sustained, coordinated and collaborative action; and identified potential priorities for future strategy development.

Feedback from stakeholders during the review process noted that, since the first strategy was published in 2014, the policy landscape within which the strategy operates has altered significantly and this should be reflected in future policy development.

Review participants emphasised the importance of learning from successes to date, and continuing to take bold and ambitious action to address the ongoing challenges Scotland faces in regards to litter and flytipping. Participants suggested that a new strategy should take into account existing commitments and be more explicit about how actions contribute to both a more circular economy and to the climate and nature crises.

Litter and flytipping impacts also need to be considered in a social and economic context, including impact to health and wellbeing.

The review also emphasised the importance of data collection, monitoring and evaluation to assess effectiveness of key measures and suggested a future strategy should include measurable outcomes, a timeline for action and an ongoing means of measuring and monitoring overall progress.

The review informed the Scottish Government’s public consultation on proposals for the new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, which took place during 2022. A total of 978 individuals or organisations responded to the consultation. Broadly, responses demonstrated high levels of support for almost all proposed actions^[27].

27 Scottish Government (2022) - National litter and flytipping strategy: consultation analysis https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-litter-flytipping-strategy-consultation-analysis-report/