Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government, along with the other UK administrations, is carefully considering proposals to reduce the environmental impacts of e-cigarettes as part of the consultation on reforms to the WEEE regulations which will be published later this year.

Circular Economy Business Support (CEBS) offers a range of support to small and medium-sized enterprises depending on the needs of each business. This includes, but is not limited to, technical and market support, developing growth strategies, building business cases, and assessing the market feasibility of novel products.

Over the last 5 years CEBS has supported 16 Scottish businesses to develop circular textile models. The following table provides a summary;

The budget figures provided in answer S6W-18435 did not include corporate running costs (CRCs). CRCs are a share of the costs, such as accommodation, IT, legal services, and HR, that cannot be readily attributed to individual portfolios. Annex G of the Scottish Government Budget 2019-20 provides a full explanation of CRCs as this was the first year they were introduced.

This is not currently being pursued. The Scottish Government is open to the adoption of standards where there is evidence of the potential to improve performance.

However, though a kitemark standard is aimed at enabling a consistent, accessible and high performing services, the 2012 Waste (Scotland) regulations along with the existing Recycling Charter and its associated Code of Practice act as the Scottish standard of good service provision for household waste collections.

In the last year, three meetings have been held on the subject of waste zoning with the Resource Management Association Scotland (RMAS) in June, July and August 2022. One meeting on the subject of waste zoning was held with the Scottish Environmental Services Association (SESA) in February 2023. The issue has also been raised in other forums that industry attend and as part of wider engagement regarding proposals for the Circular Economy Bill and Waste Route Map.

There have been no specific meetings on the topic of zoning with local authorities, but it is a topic that has been raised in various regular forums they attend and as part of wider engagement for the Circular Economy Bill and Circular Economy and Waste Route Map.

The data referred to was provided by Zero Waste Scotland, drawing on data made available by WRAP.

WRAP has advised Zero Waste Scotland that the data is drawn from a range of initial efficiency studies undertaken to support the UK wide consultation on packaging extended producer responsibility. Queries on the data and publication status, and any subsequent research, should be directed to WRAP.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18867 on 21 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

We have been left with no other option than to reset the timescale of DRS and delay the launch until October 2025 at the earliest, when the UK Government intends to launch its own scheme. This is a consequence of the decision by the UK Government to impose a partial and temporary exclusion from the Internal Market Act for Scotland’s DRS, forcing a last minute change of its scope and creating new and vague conditions for interoperability with schemes in the rest of the UK which do not exist yet.

The significant environmental benefits associated with the including glass in the DRS will now not be realised unless glass can be included in the DRS when it launches.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18922 on 22 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We will ensure when commissioning any modelling related to greenhouse gas emissions in the resources and waste sector, the role of biogenic carbon is considered, with a view to informing policy decisions.

The Scottish Government and SEFARI (Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions) are currently establishing a Specialist Advisory Group to look at waste sector greenhouse gas emissions. As part of its work, the group will consider how biogenic carbon is included in future research on waste sector emissions commissioned by the Scottish Government.