We welcome reaffirmed commitment to expand Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) to include litter

Just as Parliament headed into recess before the Scottish election we received welcome confirmation from the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Gillian Martin MSP reaffirming her commitment to ensuring a bold reform opportunity to support Scotland to tackle its litter emergency is not missed. 

More than 70% of people in Scotland agree producers should bear financial responsibility for managing packaging waste as litter which is why we, and leading environmental organisations, wrote to the Cabinet Secrtary calling for the expansion of the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme to include the costs of ground and street bin litter collection and disposal.

Our call was supported by a broad coalition of charities, community groups and campaigners, including Circular Communities Scotland, Irvine Clean Up Crew, Marine Conservation Society, Paws on Plastic, Surfers Against Sewage and West Lothian Litter Pickers showing widespread support.

Our research[1] revealed the scale of packaging found as litter, including:

• 77% of people in Scotland report food containers, wrappers and packaging at the top the of the list of litter items being seen. 

• 42.7% of sites audited across the country recorded at least one item that would be in scope for Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) regulations 

Barry Fisher, our CEO said: “Our data clearly outlines why packaging producers should bear the financial responsibility for litter, so we welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s recognition of the work we are all doing to collect and compile date to evidence the need for producers to take responsibility for packaging that escapes the systems currently in place and becomes litter.  And we are pleased to receive confirmation that there is still very much a commitment to extending the pEPR scheme from the current Scottish Government.”

The coalition has made it clear that Scotland needs urgent regulation to address packaging litter which is highly visible and unsightly, can harm our wildlife, is costly to clean up and is polluting our environment.     Extended Producer Responsibility regulations could push producers to create packaging less harmful to our environment and generate significant funds to help address the littering behaviours.

Barry added, “Following the Scottish Parliamentary Elections for the next Scottish Government we will once again call for strong leadership on this area and will seek support for this measure to ensure action is taken through the pEPR scheme to further tackle the climate, nature and litter emergencies.  We will also continue our work with Keep Wales Tidy to ensure that we can support their response to the current Welsh Government consultation on litter costs and extending the pEPR scheme.”