Chamber and committees

The £70 million recycling fund, announced in our Programme for Government 2020-21, will be delivered over five years beginning in 2021-22.

Zero Waste Scotland is progressing the development of a route map to reducing waste and achieving our 2025 waste targets. Further details, including a timeline for consultation and publication, will be provided in due course.

As outlined in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan a public review of progress towards the 33% target will take place during 2021, providing updated estimates of total food waste in Scotland and the commercial & industrial and household proportions. Scotland does not currently collect waste data at the granular level necessary to report annually or by supply chain sector.

The developing actions and infrastructure described in the response to question S5W-32200 on 30 October 2020, together with improvement in measurement methodologies will support an enhanced capacity for food waste and surplus measurement and reporting going forward.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for enhancing food waste monitoring and measurement, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course. There is considerable ongoing work to support food businesses to voluntarily report their food waste and surplus in Scotland through Zero Waste Scotland’s activities. This includes supporting businesses to consistently measure and monitor their food waste, analysis to determine the largest waste sources, improving measurement methodologies and development of best practice to support accurate food waste reporting.

Proposals for powers to enable mandatory public annual reporting of food waste and food surplus were consulted on during autumn 2019 as part of draft proposals for legislation for developing Scotland’s Circular Economy, receiving a positive response. The full independent analysis of these consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website .

The UK electronic waste tracking system, in which Scottish Government and SEPA are partners, will offer near real time data on site-specific food waste arising from businesses. This system will offer granular detail necessary to help facilitate nation-specific annual public reporting, identify Scottish site-specific data, and align with EU food waste reporting requirements. Two prototype systems are currently being finalised before procurement for delivery of the final system takes place in Spring 2021.

The following table provides a projection to the end of 2024. The projection for the year 2025 is currently under review. The projection was based on waste and emissions statistics up to 2017, assumes that key waste and recycling targets are met, and that biodegradable municipal waste being sent to landfill is banned in 2025. The carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are reported using the 100 year global warming potential for methane of 28 as provided in the International Panel on Climate Change 5 th Assessment Report. https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf (p. 731)

Projected methane emissions from biodegradable waste landfilled in Scotland

Just under 250 audits were conducted by Zero Waste Scotland by March 2020 through the Food and Drink Advice and Support Service. Between 2016 and 2019 the service resulted in food waste reductions of 2,500 tonnes of food waste per annum (a carbon saving of 8,700 tonnes of CO ₂ e), and cost savings of £2 million, from the 200 audits during this period. Impact assessment work for 19-20 is not yet available and will increase this figure further; the service is also extending coverage to larger business which will increase savings potential.

There has been some initial consultation with stakeholders regarding food waste and food surplus reporting within the recent consultation on proposals for legislation in the circular economy bill. It was put forward that there should be a power to enable Scottish Ministers to require mandatory public reporting of unwanted surplus stock and waste of certain materials by Scottish businesses. The full independent analysis of these consultation responses is available on the Scottish Government website .

We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for reducing food waste, as set out in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, in due course.

A breakdown of the Scottish Government marketing spend between 2015-16 and 2018-19 is available on the Scottish Government website:

• 2018-19: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2018-2019/
• 2017-18: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2017-2018/
• 2016-17: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend-2016-2017/
• 2015-16: https://www.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016/

The majority of funding for recycling and reuse communication initiatives is provided by Zero Waste Scotland. Table 1 contains the funding provided for national level initiatives funded through Zero Waste Scotland or Scottish Government containing communications to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years.

Table 2 contains a breakdown of the capital grants allocated by Zero Waste Scotland to Local Authorities to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse between 2015-16 and 2019-20. These costs represent the combined costs of technical and communications support. Separate costs for communication initiatives are not available.

Table 1. National level campaigns to promote increased levels of recycling and reuse in each of the last five years

The Scottish Government regularly meets with representatives of the aviation industry including representatives from airports, airlines, Unions and other aviation stakeholders.

The review of the effectiveness of the Scottish Government Guidance on Dog Training Aids will consider all relevant information supplied by stakeholders, including the latest publication from the University of Lincoln researchers.

The Scottish Government has no plans to fund research into the animal welfare impacts of electronic training aids at this time.