Chamber and committees

Yes, convener. I have committed to revisiting the numbers in the financial memorandum that the FPAC highlighted to me.

Absolutely—you are exactly right. Measuring circularity in Scotland, never mind measuring circularity in different places around the world, is difficult. Monica Lennon is right that we should consider that. Exporting of our carbon footprint and our waste is not the goal. Our goal is to reduce consumption of materials overall, so that we reduce our impact here and globally. You are right that getting the detail on that is challenging, just as it is in developing specific targets, because this is all new and cutting edge.

No. We are looking at using the super-affirmative procedure for charging for single-use items.

I do not share the concern that companies will build different infrastructure just because we made them send their unused goods to charity—[Interruption.]—instead of to the incinerator—[Interruption.] That seems a bit extreme.

—such as hygiene products and clothing, get into the hands of the people who need them.

I am not concerned about that. Section 50 of the policy memorandum shows that an existing duty of care in legislation already

“requires that waste producers must take all reasonable measures to apply the waste hierarchy when disposing of goods and must also ensure that the waste is managed”.

Businesses already have a duty to do that, but we must ensure, as in all things, that we are making progress and moving forward. Banning the disposal of unsold consumer goods is the next step in that direction, but it is something that many companies are already doing.

Absolutely. The approach would need to be developed in the spirit of the Verity house agreement. We need to develop the processes, systems and intentions at the same time as the funding regimes.

There are, of course, significant opportunities for setting up businesses—especially businesses that are associated with local authorities. I will flag up again Moray Waste Busters, which is an excellent example of a business that is associated with a local authority. It triages the waste that comes in and captures items that could be reused. Not all local authorities have such facilities, but where one has something like that in place, it is not only leasing a bit of land to a business, but that business is removing from the waste stream items that the local authority would otherwise have to pay for.

The issue is not always about supporting local authorities with costs; sometimes it is about supporting local authorities to find opportunities for savings—or even for increased revenue, such as through pre-recycling.

That is the question. There are different approaches to that. Some of it will depend on the built environment. I live in a tenement flat. In such places, we are not going to have room for multiple different boxes. However, in East Lothian, there is an excellent separation scheme, and there is good evidence that separation by the householders works in that type of built environment.

That is an interesting question. Certainly, reporting on food waste and surplus is helpful to us in meeting our waste targets. We are currently off track for meeting our food waste targets. If we—not just the Government but industry—understand where waste and surpluses arise, that can signpost us to mechanisms for dealing with those matters.

As we have said, we did not include food in the proposed ban on the destruction of unsold goods; we are looking at just reporting. Once we have the data, the policy would need to consider how we can support industry in doing better. However, the evidence suggests that, once industry is clear on waste and surplus, reducing it in the first place and finding good use for it follows along naturally.

That is what the meeting that I have arranged with Ewan MacDonald-Russell of the SRC is about. I have arranged to meet some of his members who already do such reporting to understand what good practice looks like, and then we will be able to develop the standards from that. There is no need to reinvent standards when there is already really good industry practice. About 60 companies in Scotland already do such reporting, so I want to understand what they already do and move forward with that best practice.