Single-Use Disposable Beverage Cups Charge: Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

2. Objective

The Scottish Government seeks to make regulations requiring suppliers of single-use disposable beverage cups to charge a minimum amount for such items. The policy aim is to reduce the consumption of these items, and therefore reduce the environmental harm caused. This will support the overall ambition to tackle our throwaway culture by avoiding unnecessary waste and using fewer resources. This aligns with a wider ambition to promote reusable alternatives as part of the shift towards a circular economy in Scotland.

Introducing a single-use disposable beverage cups charge will contribute to objectives set out in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009^[30], and the Climate Change Plan, Third Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP)^[31].The Climate Change Plan: Third RPP 2018-2032 was published in February 2018 and sets out plans to achieve decarbonisation of the economy in the period to 2032, making progress towards the target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050.

In 2015, the Scottish Government confirmed its support for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals^[32]. The ambition behind the goals is to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Charges on single-use disposable beverage cups products will have a positive impact on a number of these goals, most explicitly Goals 12, 13, 14 and 15 (Responsible Consumption and Production; Climate Action; Life Below Water; and Life on Land).

Furthermore, the policy will contribute towards goals outlined in Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET)^[33]. Specifically, the vision to create a wellbeing economy which is thriving across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Reducing material consumption, particularly with problematic single-use items, will help to keep our economy with environmental limits, and climate and nature targets.

Implementing a charge on single-use beverage cups aligns with the government’s key priorities set out by the First Minister in a statement to the Scottish Parliament:

• Eradicating child poverty;
• Growing the economy;
• Tackling the climate emergency; and
• Improving public services.

A charge on single-use disposable beverage cups would help achieve the goal of tackling the climate emergency by reducing consumption of single-use beverage cups and contributing towards moving us to a more circular economy.