Shaping and influencing policy - May 2022

The first months of 2022 got off to a busy start, we have continued to work collaboratively with partners at both the local and national levels to engage with a range of policy developments and topics including the 2022 Local Government Elections here in Scotland.

Strategic engagement and working collaboratively

In March, we joined Keep Wales Tidy, Keep Britain Tidy, and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful in a letter to UK Ministers along with signatures from over 40 organisations to call for Litter Payments to be included within forthcoming Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation. Later in the month DEFRA released analysis of their EPR consultation detailing the decision not to proceed with a UK-wide approach.  Whilst we welcome the commitment for litter payments and ground litter in Scotland and Wales, we will continue to call for UK Government and Northern Ireland Assembly to revise their position and include litter payments within EPR.  

We are signatories to the ERCS petition calling for an ‘Enforceable Right to a Healthy Environment’ as part of the proposed Scottish Government Human Rights Bill.

We published our Manifesto Asks for the 2022 Local Government elections set to take place in May.

Developing and engaging with policy

We submitted a number of consultation responses including: NHS Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy; Marine Litter Strategy; National Litter and Flytipping Strategy; and, the 20% Reduction in Car Kilometres Roadmap.  Additionally, we endorsed Scottish Environment LINK’s call for a strong Circular Economy Bill, and the response of the Governance Group to the Guiding Principles on the Environment (Continuity Act) Consultation.

We supported Scottish Water’s call for a ban on wet wipes containing plastic, working to influence industry and individuals understand that their actions can and do make a difference to our environment.

Demonstrating expertise and credibility

We worked in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland and the Scottish Government to host a series of online consultation events to ensure that people across the country from industry to communities and young people had their say on litter.

Our Climate Emergency Training delivery has continued across a number of sectors – we worked in partnership with Skills Development Scotland to deliver training to help staff in the tourism sector secure a green recovery and become a successful part of a net zero Scotland.

We continue in our role as joint-secretariat for the Circular Economy Cross-party Working Group, and look forward to responding to the upcoming Scottish Government consultation on the circular economy.

To mark our 22^nd Birthday, and to celebrate our achievements over the past two years we have developed our Impact Report 2020-2022.