Key stakeholders meet in Edinburgh to discuss Litter Strategy Action Plan

Our commitment to tackling litter and waste, and developing and delivering actions from the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy's (NLFS) Year 1 Action Plan, continued earlier this month with a stakeholder workshop in Edinburgh to inform the development of innovative, behaviour-based interventions to tackle litter and littering behaviour.

The workshop on Wednesday 13 September took place at Melting Pot in Edinburgh and was attended by representatives from local authorities across the country and duty bodies.

Discussions on the day focused on how we can use existing data to identify and target litter types or items (including new and emerging types) and work collaboratively with stakeholders to identify potential innovative behaviour-based interventions.

The workshop had three key objectives:

• To get feedback and input from relevant stakeholders for this specific action as part of the NLFTS Year 1 Action Plan.
• To review qualitative and quantitative evidence and data on litter types and locations, and associated behaviours.
• Using the knowledge and experience of stakeholders, begin to develop two potential behaviour-based interventions.

Crucially, the ideas, discussions and insight shared on the day will help develop a prospectus outlining two potential behaviour-based interventions focused on tackling litter that can then be shared with interested partners and funders, with a view to effectively delivering one intervention by March 2024.

Paul Wallace, our Campaigns and Social Innovation Manager, said: "Our team had a positive and constructive workshop in Edinburgh earlier this month and I'd like to thank everyone who attended for showing such enthusiasm.

"We have made no secret of the fact that we did not arrive at the litter emergency overnight and will not fix it overnight. Only through collaboration and a sustained effort over time can we begin to tackle the issue.

"The publication of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy was only the beginning of our journey to tackle Scotland's litter issue and this workshop was another important step in the right direction."

The workshop follows our first in-person Community Reference Group meeting, which took place at our hub in Stirling on 7 September. The Community Reference Group has been established to support our work to deliver the 2023/24 Action Plan which underpins Scotland’s Litter and Flytipping Strategy, launched earlier this year.

Find out more about how we're tackling litter and waste here.