Wet wipes containing plastic - proposed ban: strategic environmental assessment

3 The approach to the assessment

3.1 Purpose of the assessment

3.1.1 The purpose of this SEA is to assess the potential for likely significant environmental effects to arise from the proposed ban on the manufacture, supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic.

3.2 Scope of the proposal

3.2.1 The evidence base will include all available data on wet wipes as beach litter in Scotland, as well as regional trends analyses for the same.

3.2.2 The potential economic and social impacts that may result from the implementation of the proposal does not form part of the scope of this SEA. A partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) will also be undertaken to assess the economic impacts of this proposal, with the final assessment informed by the responses to the public consultation.

3.3 Scope of the assessment

3.3.1 The scope of any potentially significant environmental effects is largely limited to: the reduction of risk of harm posed to species and habitats exposed to pollution from wet wipes; a reduction in the risk of harm as a result of water quality affected by micro and nano plastic pollution; and a reduction in risk of harm caused to sewer infrastructure by blockages.

3.3.2 An initial review of the related assessment work (see Section 3.6) suggests that potentially significant environmental effects are likely to fall under the SEA topics of biodiversity, flora and fauna; water quality, resources, and ecological status; and material assets.

3.3.3 The rationale for scoping in or out each of the SEA topics is provided in Table 2.

3.4 Relevant plans, programmes and strategies

3.4.1 The following is a list of plans, programmes and strategies (PPS) relevant to this SEA, with additional information outlining how these PPS impact the objectives and assessment of this plan. This includes plans at the national, UK, and European / international level.

• The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 – the Act is relevant here as the management of marine litter falls under the scope of marine planning.
• Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020^[17] - includes assessments for beach litter, seafloor litter, and microplastics in surface water.
• Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland – the updated Strategy and action plan which was published in 2022 focuses on, amongst other issues, preventing litter entering the marine environment.
• National Litter and Flytipping Strategy^[18] - the strategy covers land-based litter issues, some of which impact upon types and volumes of marine litter.
• Scottish Water Improving Urban Waters – Route Map^[19] - includes actions to improve the functioning of the sewer system.
• The UK Marine Strategy - the main driver for addressing the problem of marine and coastal litter within Scotland and the UK as a whole.
• Environmental Protection Act 1990 – the law under which Scotland will be able to introduce a ban on the manufacture, supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic.
• OSPAR Convention – the main facility through which the Scottish Government interacts with neighbouring countries in the NE Atlantic, collaborating on measures to protect and conserve the ecosystems and the biological diversity of UK territorial seas. The Scottish Government contributes to work under the Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter^[20].
• EU Single-Use Plastics Directive – provides a definition of plastic that has been used in this report, and has provided a basis for Scottish Government work on a variety of single-use plastic items.

3.5 Reasonable alternatives

3.5.1 Scottish Water resolves approximately 36,000 sewer blockages per year. Customer awareness campaigns have been shown to result in a reduction of the numbers of blockages, but this effect wanes over time. The Scottish Government and Scottish Water have a multi-year plan in place to reduce the pathways for sewage-related debris (SRD) reaching the marine environment via Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). This includes improved monitoring of outfalls, and targeted improvements to sewer infrastructure and capture of solid items. However ‘end of pipe’ solutions for marine litter are not effective and are not the preferred solution. Our first principle is to prevent litter reaching the marine environment, to stop the problem at source and prevent plastic items becoming litter in the first place.

3.5.2 The UK has a voluntary water industry standard, Fine to Flush, administered by the industry body Water UK. Wipes which pass the specification tests for flushability can be labelled as Fine to Flush. Uptake of the standard has been limited. The two main manufacturers of wet wipes in the UK still use plastic in most of their products. Major retailers continue to stock wet wipes containing plastic, including their own brand products. In addition, demand for anti-bacterial wipes has increased due to Covid-19.

3.5.3 The industry body EDANA established a voluntary flushability standard for wet wipes, GD4^[21], in 2008. The GD4 Guidelines assess the compatibility of wet wipes with waste water infrastructure. Meeting these guidelines allows wet wipes to be labelled as ‘flushable’. It should be noted that this standard has been developed into what could be considered a more stringent Fine to Flush standard (see 2.4.1 and 3.5.2).

3.5.4 Some major retailers in the UK have had strands of their own brand ranges certified as Fine to Flush. However, there are other retailers that have made no commitments or stated they have no plans to make changes.

3.5.5 As noted in 2.1.2, a further finding of the single-use plastic consultation was that 94% of the respondents were in favour of market restrictions on additional single-use plastic products, including wet wipes containing plastic.

3.5.6 In conclusion, business and public behaviour change measures have not solved the current issue. Wet wipes containing plastics are still manufactured, they are still purchased, and they are still disposed of down toilets and are littered. Sales of some wet wipe products are growing. Alternative measures to reduce this form of pollution have failed, including:

• The inability of the market to move customers to plastic-free alternatives despite their availability,
• The lack of implementation of a voluntary plastic-free, flushable industry standard across manufacturers,
• The failure of behaviour change campaigns to stop inappropriate flushing of products, and
• Labelling of some products as ‘flushable’ or ‘do not flush’ causes confusion for the consumer, as these labels are voluntary, and are not consistently applied across all available products. Labelling is a reserved power, it is not within the power of the Scottish Government to enforce companies to brand products with ‘do not flush’ labels.

3.5.7 On this basis, we do not consider that there are any reasonable alternatives to the proposed ban on the manufacture, supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic.

3.6 Assessment methodology

3.6.1 The SEA has presented a high level and qualitative account of the potential environmental effects that might be expected to arise from the proposed ban on the manufacture, supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic.

3.6.2 The assessment has been informed by a desk-based review of available data on beach litter. This environmental baseline review is presented at Section 4.

3.6.3 The potential implications of the proposed measure were then assessed against the SEA objectives. The SEA objectives that were applied in the assessment are presented in Table 3.

3.6.4 A ban on the manufacture, supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic is expected to reduce the prevalence of plastic litter, and in turn microplastics, which have adverse effects on the marine environment, as well as causing blockages and damage to sewer infrastructure.

3.6.5 Each of the SEA topics, and the associated objectives and questions, will be assessed against the scoring criteria (see Table 4) to determine whether the proposed ban is likely to have a positive, negative, or no overall effect, or whether there is uncertainty about the effect. Commentary will be provided to explain the rationale of each conclusion.

Table 3. SEA objectives

Biodiversity, flora, and fauna:

• To work towards achieving ‘Good Environmental Status’ for marine litter;
• To safeguard and enhance marine and coastal ecosystems, including species, habitats and their interactions;
• To protect and conserve the ecosystems and the biological diversity of UK territorial seas.

Water quality, resources, ecological status:

• To work towards achieving ‘Good Environmental Status’ for marine litter;
• To safeguard and enhance marine and coastal ecosystems, including species, habitats and their interactions;
• To protect and conserve the ecosystems and the biological diversity of UK territorial seas.

Material assets:

• To work towards achieving ‘Good Environmental Status’ for marine litter;
• To work towards reducing sewer blockages and damage to infrastructure.

Table 4. Key to assessment scores

• + Positive effect
• 0 No overall effect
• - Negative effect
• ? Uncertain effect

Where more than one symbol is presented in the table below, it indicates that the SEA has found more than one score for that question.

3.7 Mitigation and monitoring proposals

3.7.1 The proposal is expected to only provide positive effects on the topics identified as in scope of the SEA, therefore mitigation proposals have not been considered.

3.7.2 We will monitor the environmental impacts of the proposed ban through the abundance of wet wipes found as marine litter on Scottish beaches.