Circular economy and waste route map to 2030: strategic environmental assessment - post adoption statement

2. How environmental considerations have been integrated into the Route Map

2.1 Environmental considerations for the Route Map

The SEA has played an integral role in highlighting the environmental factors to be considered in the development of the Route Map.

The following topics and associated assessment questions were scoped into the assessment (confirmed through scoping consultation):

Biodiversity, flora, fauna

• Will the plan avoid adverse impacts to habitats and species?
• Will it protect, maintain, and enhance biodiversity?

Population and human health

• Will the plan reduce the health gap and inequalities and improve healthy life expectancy?
• Will it protect and improve human health and wellbeing through improving the quality of the living environment of people and communities?
• Will it increase sustainable access to essential services, employment, and the natural and historic environment?

Soil

• Will the plan safeguard and improve soil quality, quantity, and function in Scotland, particularly high value agricultural land and carbon-rich soils?

Water

• Will the plan ensure the sustainable use of water resources?
• Will it help to reduce levels of water pollution?

Air

• Will the plan avoid adverse impacts to air quality?
• Will it reduce emissions of key pollutants and improve air quality throughout Scotland?
• Will it reduce levels of nuisance e.g., noise, vibration, dust, odour, and light?

Climatic factors

• Will the plan help to reduce existing and avoid new greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions?

Material assets

• Will it reduce use and promote sustainable management of natural resources?
• Will it reduce 'leakage' of material to landfill or energy recovery or as litter?

Landscape and visual impacts

• Will the plan avoid adverse effects on landscapes and visual impacts?
• Will it safeguard and enhance the character and diversity of the Scottish landscape and areas of valuable landscape and geodiversity?

Cultural heritage and the historic environment

• Will it avoid adverse impacts on the historic environment including its setting?
• Will it protect and enhance valued landscapes, historic and archaeological sites and other culturally and historically important features, landscapes, and their settings?
• Will it encourage the retention, reuse and repair of historic environment assets and materials?

The measures were assessed under each of the strategic aims presented in the latest draft of the Route Map at the time. Causal loop diagrams were developed to assess the expected outputs and the effects on different parts of the life cycle of relevant materials and products, and identified outcomes were presented in summary tables within the Environmental Report^[3].

The conclusions of the Environmental Report are summarised in the table below. No net negative environmental effects were identified under any of the strategic aims assessed.^[4]

Table 1 Summary of findings in the Environmental Report

Key for Table 1

+ Only (significant) positive impacts expected.

+/? Impacts are expected to be mostly positive but may be offset to some extent by potential negative impacts.

N/A No impacts identified

2.2 Development of the Route Map following the Environmental Assessment

The Environmental Report concluded that the Route Map would bring positive environmental benefits, and that most negative environmental impacts were understood to be unavoidable activities to enable the delivery of the Route Map's objectives and proposed actions e.g. increased direct emissions from recycling activity which would lead to overall positive environmental effects due to a corresponding reduction in other disposal methods and potential displacement of virgin material production. The recommended approach was therefore to continue forward with the proposed measures, whilst ensuring alignment with other relevant strategies.

Due to the positive nature of the impacts identified in the Environmental Report, no overarching mitigation measures or alternative actions were suggested. The report highlighted the importance of monitoring the impact of the proposed measures and suggested that the Route Map should be supported by statutory circular economy targets, making use of the enabling powers granted in the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024.

The vast majority of the measures assessed in the Environmental Report have been retained in the final version of the Route Map: the document identifies measures as 'Priority actions' and underlying 'Further actions', while some actions have been moved to more appropriate chapters within the document.

The final version of the Route Map sets out 11 priority actions to drive progress, setting out delivery timescales that have been arrived at through collaboration and listening to local government and business community partners to ensure they remain affordable and deliverable. The Scottish Government is committed to progressing a circular economy at pace and will continually look to increase the speed of delivery where possible, taking account of partner feedback and the fiscal situation. The long-term ambitions over the time period considered in the SEA Environmental Report remain the same as at the time of the assessment.

Some actions have progressed since the draft Route Map was published, and the final adopted version of the plan acknowledges the new status of such actions, for example, updated to reflect progress since the second consultation to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes from 2025.

One additional action is presented in the final version of the Route Map which was not present in the version assessed in the SEA Environmental Report, under the 'Modernise recycling' aim: to 'undertake a consultation to explore kerbside collection of textiles'. In the draft Route Map, this action was referenced under the broader household recycling co-design proposal, but was not presented as a standalone action. This measure is likely to support and strengthen the environmental effects already identified in the Environmental Report. Therefore, the nature and direction of net effects is not expected to change under any of the in-scope SEA topic areas as a result of these changes and the conclusions of the Report remain valid.

Some other actions have been merged or streamlined. Most notably, the standalone action to 'investigate the feasibility of [voluntary food waste reduction] action plans' has been removed from the final document, which now focuses more closely on developing effective options to implement mandatory public reporting of food waste and surplus by businesses. The SEA conclusions of the projected impacts under the area of food waste are not expected to be significantly affected by this change, as the ambition set out within this chapter remains the same. The enhanced support for businesses and strengthening of evidence around food waste and surplus are still anticipated to result in a reduction in wasted food and an increase in composting and organics recycling in favour of incineration and landfill in the long term.