The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-14991, in the name of Cameron Buchanan, on keeping litter off the streets. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes with concern the amount of litter on Scotland’s streets and waterways, including around the Lothian region; notes the view that the lasting way to tackle littering is through changes in attitude, including through wide-ranging programmes to inform members of the public; believes that, although showing a willingness to challenge a person littering in public is helpful, ultimate responsibility lies with the litterers themselves; considers that the work that local authorities do to clean up litter is an unwelcome burden, and applauds the work of charities and community campaigners, such as Leithers Don’t Litter, which resolve to set an example and keep Scotland’s streets tidy.
18:06
Scotland is dirty: there is no way around that. The amount of litter bears that fact out, in spite of well-meaning local initiatives such as Leithers don’t litter and many others across Scotland. Such initiatives can make a difference in local areas and are setting the exact example that we need to see replicated on a national scale.
Unfortunately, the problem of litter is more prevalent in Scotland than it is in almost any developing country. Gerry and Zsuzsa Farrell of Leithers don't litter—among others—are running a determined campaign that is spreading the message about the problem and what we can all do to help. As they have highlighted, problems include general rubbish, dog fouling, overflowing bins, fly-tipping and takeaway cartons.
On tackling the problem, they are right to highlight the difference that comes from adopting a street and using a simple litter-picker. If locals make that effort for their communities and such initiatives spread across Scotland, we will see the lasting difference that we need. However, local authorities also have a large role to play. As well as clearing up reported messes, they must do their utmost to clear litter before it has to be reported and to improve standards of bin collection.
Addressing the problem is not just the duty of councils. The key thing is education. We have to educate people not to leave litter, and that education has to start in nurseries from the age of three or four. I heard recently that there are litter classes for primary school children in Germany and that all those children grow up with due regard to the problem of litter. The fines in Scotland seem to make no difference at all, even though they have recently been increased.
When we see people dropping litter, we might ask them to pick it up and say that they should not drop litter, but the problem is that some of them will just give the happy motoring sign or tell us to go and see a taxidermist. The public are therefore not willing to confront litter louts or litter droppers. Somebody phoned me the other day to say that he had seen bottles being thrown out of a car window, which is totally unacceptable. I suppose that all that people can do about that is honk their horn loudly to show disapproval, but that can lead to aggressive road rage.
Another problem is that, when grass verges are mown and cleared on country lanes, nobody stops to pick up the litter that has been left, so it blows all over the place. During the summer—this is what started me on this debate—I telephoned Edinburgh airport to say that there was an awful lot of litter on the approach road to the airport, which had been left after the grass was cut. I was told that it was the responsibility not of the airport but of the City of Edinburgh Council. I then phoned the council, which said that it was not the council’s responsibility but the airport’s. I do not know what happened, but the litter was cleared up quickly.
The solution is that the people who are employed to mow the lawns and tend to the verges could pick up the litter while they are at it. Surely it does not take much initiative for people to have a bag strapped around their waist for collecting what has been left, as is done in other countries.
Another problem is the collection of rubbish bags in the street. With the City of Edinburgh Council cutting back on collections, it is even more important that bins and boxes are gull proof and weather proof and are put out on the correct day. I do not think that we need litter wardens—however much we might want them—because the council would not be able to fund them. There is no way of controlling them anyway. If other countries do not have them, why do we need them? Why is it necessary in Scotland?
The problem of litter is becoming a scourge. We should tackle it head on, so what do we do about it? We have had debates on the issue before in the Parliament—I have looked them up. They just went on and on. As I said, I think that this is all about education. We have to educate people not to drop litter but to put it in their pockets until they get to a bin. It is rather like dealing with the problem of dog fouling.
It cannot be a coincidence that places such as Switzerland and Austria—and even, to a lesser extent, northern Italy—have a lot less of a litter problem than we do. It gives Scotland a bad name. All the tourist brochures extol the virtues of the Scottish countryside, but it takes just a few pieces of litter lying around to destroy that image.
I do not think that straight penalties are the answer, as they have to be enforced, and that seems also to be a problem. Penalties have to be enforceable. We need to shame people into not dropping litter and we need to encourage children from a young age not to drop any litter at all. Perhaps we could have more dedicated days in schools that encourage children to pick up litter. An initiative such as that might work.
We must remember that educational initiatives have to extend beyond schools into adult life. Promoting awareness of the scourge of litter and what we can do about it has to reach parents, dog walkers, takeaway owners and adults across Scotland. The many worthwhile local initiatives are excellent for raising awareness locally, but we have to make sure that their example is spread nationally through education.
Accordingly, I hope that the debate will play a small part in the collective effort that is needed to spread the benefits from local initiatives such as Leithers don’t litter around the country and to keep litter off our streets.
18:10
I thank Cameron Buchanan for bringing this important debate to the chamber. I brought a similar debate to the chamber some three years ago.
Litter costs Scotland over £53 million each year. That is money that could be better spent on other services. Litter is a scourge and a blight, it decries any sense of proper national behaviour with regard to rubbish and it affects public health, the environment and landscaping.
Scotland produced its first national litter strategy in June 2014. It is not working. The strategy identified ways to encourage people to take personal responsibility through communication, infrastructure and enforcement. However, they do not, and in my view local authorities certainly do not. For example, at the time of my debate, I proposed that we apply a 10p levy on chewing gum to avoid the chicken pox that destroys our pavements and our streets.
It is a matter of personal responsibility. In the end, we will pay for litter either as taxpayers or as customers of goods and services. There is now an £80 penalty if people are caught littering, which can discourage future offending. However, the mess that lies in the streets today but that could be recycled amounts to something like £1.2 million, which would generate income for the relevant authorities. We can influence behaviour when we work together; I commend Glasgow City Council for its “time or fine” initiative, whereby people who cannot afford to pay the fine spend time picking up the litter that has been created.
When we look at our attitude to recycling now compared to our attitude 10 to 15 years ago, we see that there has been a societal change. There is still lots to do, but awareness is much greater. We need to ensure that we promote social change in relation to littering and fly-tipping to the same degree, and we can do that in a number of ways. We could make better use of materials that may end up as litter or being fly-tipped, and the whole packaging industry needs to consider biodegradability in packaging much more than it does now.
Ensuring that our communities are cleaner and safer is essential where we live and do business. Ultimately, that will lead to a reduction in the damaging consequences of litter and fly-tipping to our wellbeing and to our environment. Information is key in delivering our goals. We need to explain to people what the right thing to do with waste is. As Cameron Buchanan said, that starts in schools: we need to educate.
Along with education, there is also now a need to ensure that we have proper infrastructure. We must work with business and designers to ensure that their products can be recycled in the first place, and we need to ensure that there are incentives and support in place to support activity that delivers litter-free environments.
Meaningful enforcement needs to sit alongside that, though; we need effective laws and procedures that deter littering in the first place. To deliver the strategy, we need to involve businesses, the resource management industry, the Scottish Government, local authorities and the third sector, including environmental charities and local community groups. Local authorities and business improvement districts are encouraged to apply for funding and, where that has been implemented, it has resulted in an average drop in littering of 38 per cent. I encourage our local authorities to do much more specifically to create social enterprises or community enterprises to take over management of cleaning up litter.
If Scotland is to be attractive to tourists and if we are to ensure that Scotland is the beautiful country that we know it to be, Government, local authorities, businesses and schools must work together to push for the change in culture and behaviour that is very much needed.
18:15
I also thank and congratulate Cameron Buchanan for securing a member’s debate today on what is a very important issue for people’s everyday lives. The impact of living in a housing estate that is continually littered up or strewn with the results of dog fouling because people are not cleaning up at the back of their dogs cannot be stressed enough.
I always assume that the majority of people are responsible and caring, would not litter up their streets or public parks, would not walk away from litter and would clean up at the back of their dogs. It is a minority who tend to cause the major problem—but a problem it is.
A housing estate’s being full of litter impacts on the environment in which people live and can impact on the health and wellbeing of residents. That is how important the subject is. It is disappointing therefore that the national strategy does not seem to be working. Perhaps we need to ask what we can do about that. The minister might pick up that point.
As a former council leader, when a council is faced with making cuts in budgets and there is a choice between the grass verges that Cameron Buchanan mentioned being cut four times per year—or once a year—or cutting school budgets, the grass verges will come first for budget cuts every time. As we have seen in the summer when verges are cut perhaps once, the grass then gets very long, and people have a tendency to throw rubbish in it. When the grass is eventually cut, the mess is a nightmare.
We have seen a reduction in the number of wardens. Again, if the choice is whether to cut wardens or to cut education for the children, the wardens will be chosen. It is important that the local authorities recognise the importance of litter, but if their budgets are under pressure, that service will often be what goes first.
I held street surgeries over the summer and dog fouling came up as an issue in many parts of the constituency. My experience in Fife has been that, where the council has been proactive with signs and phone numbers and is clearly willing to act and to fine people who will not clean up at the back of their dogs, something is done about it and improvements take place. Enforcement is important and we need to recognise that if we are to tackle the problem.
As both Chic Brodie and Cameron Buchanan said, education is also very important. The example that I cite is that recycling rates in Fife—the highest in Scotland—are partly the result of promoting recycling through eco-schools. The education of children has meant that they have constantly pushed their parents, grandparents and the community to recycle, which has had a big impact on the recycling achievements that we are very proud of in Fife. Education is important. I visited last year a school from which pupils had been across in Germany. I asked them how they had got on. They stressed that one of the first things that their guide said to them when they got off the bus in Germany was, “Whatever you do, don’t drop any litter, because it’s simply not tolerated in this country.” Perhaps we need to make the point that it is simply not tolerated in any community here.
I am out of time, Presiding Officer, but I congratulate Cameron Buchanan again for bringing the debate to the chamber. Let us hope that it does not stop today, but that we find out what is working, and what is not. It is a very serious issue for people and communities across Scotland.
18:20
I, too, thank Cameron Buchanan for lodging his motion and congratulate him on securing time for this debate on an issue that I think we all agree is important.
Scotland is a country that is world renowned for its beauty—not only in our vast rural landscapes, but in our towns and parts of our cities. However, such places are all too often tainted by an abundance of litter on the streets and waterways of our towns and our countryside.
As someone who has never dropped so much as a sweetie paper in my life, I find it shocking, incomprehensible and, quite frankly, distressing that the issue is still such a problem in 2016. Some 250 million pieces of litter are picked up every single year. That figure is so high that is hard to fully contemplate the number of people who must be discarding litter. Littering must be tackled and reduced.
Sadly, not everyone is aware of the impact that rubbish has not only on the environment and Scotland’s wildlife but on people’s health and wellbeing. Short-term ways of dealing with litter might work for a while, but the only lasting way to stop the problem is by going straight to the source. Public attitudes to littering must change.
There is no way round the fact that the responsibility for littering must always come back to the culprits. The very definition of littering must be challenged, for while most people appear to be absolutely against ever deliberately littering, they view accidental littering—perhaps if there is only a little bit, or if there is a lack of bins—as a different matter. Such attitudes must be challenged.
People are generally embarrassed about admitting to littering, so it could be helpful to challenge any littering that is witnessed. However, as Cameron Buchanan pointed out, that could be met with aggression, so people must always be cautious.
There have been moves in the right direction. The introduction of a charging scheme for single use carrier bags in 2014 was a huge step forward towards cleaner and healthier streets in Scotland. The figures from the first year following the introduction of the charge showed that the number of plastic bags that were given out in shops fell by a massive 80 per cent, which is equivalent to 650 million bags. Not only that, but the scheme has saved more than 4,000 tonnes of material when we take account of factors such as the increased use of bags for life. In addition, as we all know, significant amounts of money have been generated for charity.
Such schemes help to change people’s attitudes to the environment and what they do with resources. That allows at least some pressure to be taken from local authorities, which lie under the heavy burden of cleaning up litter. Some 15,000 tonnes of litter are cleared by local authorities every single year, and that work is costly. Included is about 4,000 tonnes of tobacco-related litter, such as packaging and cigarette butts. That is another reason to give up smoking.
It is extremely important, then, to applaud the work of the charities and volunteer groups that dedicate their efforts to helping to keep Scotland’s streets clean. The work that these communities do is invaluable, and as well as setting an example to others on how to keep their streets clean, they can encourage others to follow in their footsteps.
In my constituency, I have carried out a Cumbrae beach clean once a year for nine consecutive years, involving the local community. Wearing high-visibility vests with “Volunteer” and “Keep Scotland Beautiful” on them helps to make people think. Kilbirnie community council carries out six such days a year, and others take place across my constituency from Beith to Fairlie and Arran. The Ayrshire litter volunteer network is at the forefront of such action, organising groups wherever possible. Such groups must be applauded, as the work that they do not only keeps Scotland’s streets cleaner and safer but helps to alleviate the pressure on local authorities and allows them to use their time and resources on other matters.
I have long been an advocate of the adopt a road scheme that works so successfully in North America, whereby groups, individuals or businesses take responsibility for keeping a given stretch of road free of litter, working closely with local authorities. Schools also work hard to inculcate responsibility for not littering. Indeed, adults are more likely to be responsible for littering, so it is their attitudes that must be focused on.
Scotland is rightly considered beautiful by many visitors, but they also find it dirty by the standards of other European countries. In 1985, I had a German girlfriend who invited her parents to stay with her in Scotland for a fortnight. They left after three days because the country was just too dirty, in their view. I found it profoundly embarrassing. We must work together to reduce litter and thereby change perceptions of Scotland for the better.
18:24
I congratulate Cameron Buchanan on bringing forward this important debate, while apologising to him, the cabinet secretary and the Presiding Officer because I have to leave as soon as I have finished speaking. I should not really be speaking in the debate because I am due to be at a meeting in my constituency, but, when I saw the motion, I could not not speak because of the reference to the Leithers don’t litter campaign.
I will mention education and enforcement briefly, but what has struck me most recently is the contribution of voluntary groups to the effort. That has been brought to my attention because of the amazing Leithers don’t litter campaign. It has been going for only a few months but it has engaged large numbers of people in the community. When I have a bit more time on my hands in seven weeks, I will want to get involved personally in the campaign.
One of the key things that the campaign is doing is adopting a street, which is the concept that Kenneth Gibson described a moment ago. If people go on to the Facebook page, they can sign up to adopt a street. There is a clear focus on litter but there is also a focus on dog fouling. A few days ago, there was a post on the page saying that dog poo had even been found in a children’s playground. That has prompted the campaign to organise a demonstration of responsible dog walkers in Leith. That is part of a community effort to put pressure on those who behave in an antisocial way in relation to dog fouling to change their behaviour. It is one of the best community initiatives that I have seen and I cannot speak highly enough of all the many people in my constituency who are involved.
Those people clearly want to keep Leith beautiful. Leith is beautiful. It is spoilt only by litter and dog fouling. To my mind, if litter is bad, dog fouling is even worse. I spoke about the example of the children’s playground but my own family had an incident last week. My three-year-old granddaughter was going to nursery school and got a massive amount of dog poo on her boots. It was under the soles and up the side of the boots and she had to go to nursery school like that. That is absolutely shocking from every point of view, especially from a health point of view. We have to have a special effort to change people’s behaviour in relation to that issue. I often say—not entirely jokingly—that any politician who could get rid of dog fouling in my constituency would be elected to Parliament instantly because so many people feel so strongly about it.
Enforcement is important, as is education in schools. There are sometimes national campaigns about such issues and I suggest that there should be a national initiative and campaign about this problem of dog fouling. However, it has to be backed up by enforcement. I do not see how culture change can be brought about unless there is a stronger element of enforcement. One of the problems is that there are not enough environmental wardens to catch people. Of course, we understand the reasons for that, given council budgets. Another problem is that the fixed-penalty notices that can be imposed by environmental wardens are not always paid. In fact, they are not paid on a large number of occasions and the fiscals are not always willing to intervene. The offence must be given higher status. It is very serious antisocial behaviour and there has to be an organised effort at the enforcement and legal levels to deal with it, as well as the wider initiatives for cultural change.
In my final 10 seconds, I again pay tribute to Leithers don’t litter. I cannot speak highly enough of the work that the campaign has done and is continuing to do.
18:28
I thank Cameron Buchanan for raising the issue of litter on our streets in the Scottish Parliament, as many members have done over the years. I can see that all the members who have spoken tonight feel strongly that litter is a blight on our amazing country and that those who continue to litter in Scotland are highly irresponsible individuals.
Litter affects the way we feel about where we live, work and spend our leisure time. That, in turn, has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. The numbers involved are truly jaw-dropping, with more than 250 million items of easily visible litter being dropped every year. That is 26,000 tonnes of littered material. High-value littered items, such as plastic bottles and cans, would be worth more than £1.2 million if they were recycled. More than £53 million of public money is spent every year on tackling litter and fly-tipping. That is money that could be better spent on other important services in our society.
Of course, items that are littered or fly-tipped also pose a health hazard to humans and animals alike. We all know about the impact that marine litter can have on marine wildlife.
Recognising all those negative impacts, the Government launched our towards a litter-free Scotland strategy in June 2014. It was our first national litter strategy since devolution and, as was mentioned, it was only about 18 months ago; 18 months is not a long time to properly evaluate the success or otherwise of the strategy, given that the issue is about cultural change in Scotland and, as I said, it is the first ever national litter strategy in Scotland.
As part of the strategy, we ran a national media campaign against littering behaviour across television, radio and social media. As was also mentioned, we increased the fines for littering from £50 to £80 and for fly-tipping from £50 to £200 after the consultation that we held a couple of years ago.
In October 2014, we introduced a charge on single-use carrier bags—a highly visible form of litter. So far, that has resulted in an 80 per cent decrease in the number of bags distributed in the first year of the charge, as Kenneth Gibson mentioned. That is 650 million fewer bags being taken every year by shoppers in Scotland, which is good news in anyone’s book.
We have also committed more than £575,000 towards Keep Scotland Beautiful’s clean up Scotland campaign from 2013 to 2016. If members in the chamber have a view on whether that organisation has delivered the goods for that resource, we should hear it. We are still hearing about problems with litter in Scotland, yet Keep Scotland Beautiful and other organisations are being funded to make sure that a lot of activity is happening. To be fair, a lot is happening and we all know that from activity in our own communities.
From April 2015, we introduced powers for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and other public bodies to issue fixed penalty notices.
We are also continuing to explore the role that deposit and return could play in Scotland to reduce littering and improve recycling quality. I certainly agree with many members that we need to find a fresh approach where necessary for some of the topics within the litter strategy. We also need to learn from what other countries are doing successfully that perhaps we are not doing in this country. Deposit and return is not a new idea; it is new to Scotland and indeed the rest of the United Kingdom, but it works well in other countries and the Scottish Government has put in a lot of effort to ascertain whether it would work in Scottish circumstances.
Zero Waste Scotland was commissioned to carry out that work and we are now undertaking further research to look at issues such as the impact of deposit and return on smaller businesses—corner shops, small grocers and so on—because it is likely that they would have to take back the returned cans or bottles and be part of that arrangement if it was to go ahead. We would have to make sure that we understood exactly how that would work in Scottish circumstances.
The system works in other countries and, if we attach a value to cans or bottles, people are less likely to litter them because they can go and get their money back. Indeed, others are incentivised to go and collect them from our streets and our communities because, in turn, they can raise money from doing that. That is certainly the experience in other countries. If we decide to go for deposit and return in this country—that decision is yet to be taken—it could be part of our litter strategy as well.
As members have said, tackling litter is about behavioural change, and that is a core part of our litter strategy. We are working with our partners to provide information, improve infrastructure and make enforcement more of a deterrent. We are encouraging people to take responsibility for their own behaviour. In addition to the national campaign mentioned earlier, Zero Waste Scotland has developed a toolkit of signs that organisations around Scotland can customise and use free of charge.
We have improved the infrastructure throughout our communities by funding the installation of more than 3,300 “recycling on the go” bins since 2011, so more of them are now present in our communities. We are supporting their use with the “Recycle for Scotland” branding.
Work is on-going to update the code of practice on litter and refuse, which covers the various ways in which local authorities in particular can intervene. We are bringing that guidance up to date to ensure that it supports our wider litter strategy.
We know that real change will take time, innovation and commitment from everyone involved. Since 2014, another £0.5 million has been invested in supporting innovative projects by local authorities and community groups, with the aim of moving away from simply cleaning up to a focus on prevention. Those groups are helping to drive the behaviour change that we need. That work has included the Scottish Waterways Trust, which is working to develop a crowd-sourced approach to monitoring litter and raising awareness through schoolchildren.
Other initiatives that are being funded are Greenspace Scotland’s work with three communities to tackle litter and fly-tipping problems through a range of community-led green space and street improvements. A range of actions are under way. As I said, we know that littering behaviour costs Scotland £78 million in direct and indirect costs to our society and economy.
A bottom-up approach is important. Cameron Buchanan’s motion talks about the Leithers don’t litter initiative. I commend Cameron Buchanan for bringing that to our attention, and I commend the people behind that fantastic initiative, which Malcolm Chisholm also spoke about. I personally congratulate Mr and Mrs Farrell, who founded the initiative. From looking at all the actions that they have undertaken and from hearing about them today, it is clearly a fantastically successful idea. I hope that it is an example for other communities across Scotland to follow.
I should mention Pete Miners in my constituency of Moray, who tirelessly patrols the Lossiemouth river banks and collects lots of coastal litter in the area. He gets a lot of press coverage for doing that. It is the kind of activity that we love to see, as it involves local people volunteering. We owe them a huge debt.
Last week, a young man called Joe Pirnie phoned me at my office as he is starting up, with some others, the Forres community clean-up group. Because he feels so strongly about the issue and he wants to clean up the streets of Forres and elsewhere, he has started a campaign in the town. I of course told him that I look forward to working with him in doing that.
All members will be able to give examples from their experience of people at grass-roots level putting their effort where their mouth is and going out and cleaning up streets in their community. We have to do a lot more to encourage and resource that in the years ahead, so that we have a national voluntary effort across every town, village and city in Scotland. I believe that that will take us far along the road to having a much cleaner Scotland, which is something that we all want.
I thank members for their contributions. I will certainly take away the good ideas that I have heard about during the debate.
Meeting closed at 18:37.Previous
Decision Time