APRS has responded to the consultation on the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill. In summary our view is that the bill, as it stands, needs considerable improvement if it is to drive Scotland’s transition towards a circular economy. Waste should be seen as a systemic issue, and we need greater provisions for producer responsibility rather than the blame lying solely on individuals.
Action to Protect Rural Scotland has today proposed that 16th August 2023 be Scotland’s first annual National Litter Day, marking the day Scotland’s much-delayed deposit return system for cans and bottles should have finally come into effect.
This blog records the campaign against the deposit return scheme and tried to explain a bit of what happened over the last six months. Firstly for the supporters of the ‘Have you Got the Bottle?’ campaign and for APRS’s members, but also, importantly, as a heads-up for those campaigning for deposit return in England and Wales. We expect some of the same tactics to be used against the planned deposit return schemes in England and Wales and, as they say, “forewarned is forearmed”.
Environmental campaigners reacted with deep dismay to the Scottish Government’s announcement that they intend to delay deposit return for a fourth time, to align with a UK system which has yet to be designed and agreed.
Campaigners urged the First Minister to “hold his nerve”, following Westminster’s decision to force Scotland to exclude glass from the
Westminster has told the Scottish Government what it can and can’t do with deposit return.
Today APRS and volunteers from Fife Street Champions demonstrated outside Tesco Duloch, calling on the supermarket chain to support Scotland’s upcoming deposit return scheme. The campaigners brought littered trollies filled with littered cans and bottles.
APRS and environmental NGOs from across the UK have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exclusion to the Internal Markets Act and include glass in England’s Deposit Return Scheme.
The Scottish Government has released the new regulations for the upcoming deposit return system, which will now go live on the 1st March 2024. We have summarised the the key changes included in the new regulations.