Negotiations in Geneva for a #GlobalPlasticsTreaty did not lead to what we hoped for – a commitment to reduce plastic production and pollution globally.
And, as we submit a response to the UK Marine Bill Consultation today our Campaigns Manager, Heather McLaughlin has thought about the set back, but also the efforts of so many individuals and organisations across the world who are working so hard collecting data, raising awareness, influencing policy all the tackle litter and waste - and in many cases plastic pollution.
We are hopeful for change globally, but in the meantime will remain focused on what we can do with the resources available to us.
As an environmental charity – one of our strategic objectives is tackling litter and waste.
Today we realised that negotiations in Geneva for a #GlobalPlasticsTreaty did not lead to what we hoped for – a commitment to reduce plastic production and pollution globally. Sadly, we also submitted our response to DEFRA on the Marine Strategy Part One outlining our disappointed that the UK has not met Good Environmental Standards (GES) for (D10) marine litter.
Yet despite the difficult news and setbacks, we have to remain positive and focus on what we can achieve, building on that until global governments can see that plastic pollution of our land and seas must be taken seriously.
We declared a litter emergency in 2022 and our data, and that collected by the many volunteers we support to gather information across Scotland, provides evidence of the ongoing challenge we have ahead to tackle the issue – just check out our recently published reports as part of Upstream Battle® - thanks to funding Funded by the Scottish Government Marine Fund, as part of Scotland’s Marine Litter Strategy - which summarise information collected by volunteers and members of #TeamKSB across more than 100 locations providing a unique insight to what litter is found along Scottish rivers and waterways, complementing and adding to the other datasets we and partners hold.
The valuable data collected at a local level is also used to supported our campaign work at a national and local level – raising the profile of the issue, calling for more investment, sustained action and policy and legislation changes.
Litter, with a high proportion of it being plastic, is a major threat to aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, impacts our tourism offer and can pose a risk to human health as it breaks down and enters the food chain. We must continue to fight to shift the narrative from litter being the poor man’s environmental problem, to a widespread understanding that litter, in particularly plastic litter pollutes throughout its entire life cycle – and is as damaging on land as in the sea.
The knowledge, passion, and expertise that #TeamKSB and the volunteers we work with has enabled us to push for change, collectively, alongside other passionate NGOs and individuals.
The data has backed up and helped us achieve a:
- National Litter and Flytipping Strategy for Scotland and a Marine litter Strategy for Scotland;
- a ban on single-use plastic cotton bud sticks, straws and disposable vapes;
- a promised Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and cans;
- a forthcoming ban on plastic single-use wet wipes; and
- the potential for a charge on single-use beverage cups and the introduction of a charge on single-use carrier bags
Our focus remains to push the producer must pay principle harder with regards to Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and ensuring it includes litter in the future.
In Scotland, and across the UK, progress is being made. We do need more action globally.
But we can and will keep going, collaborating with others, pushing for change.
We will keep collecting and processing data alongside our volunteers, we will keep litter picking across Scotland, and we will continue to work to deliver Scotland’s litter and marine litter strategies alongside national and local government, businesses and communities to ensure that we tackle the litter emergency in our country and further afield.
We may be swimming upstream to battle litter but with so many forthcoming policies on the table that will all play a part tackling the litter emergency we have hope that we can kick start more collaborative approaches to ensure we can turn the tide on litter entering our seas. We know that creative, local interventions can make a difference, and we want and need to scale these up and support more action.
Check out our news story - Swimming upstream to battle litter entering the sea | Keep Scotland Beautiful – insert link to Marine Bill news story…. and our reports and do get in touch if you would like to work with us going forward to tackle source to sea litter as part of Upstream Battle.
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