Current status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 November 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of efforts to inform small businesses of their obligations under current waste regulations and to support mechanisms available to help them meet those obligations.
The initial implementation of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 was focussed on communication and awareness raising. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) worked in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) and waste service providers to co-ordinate messages, produce leaflets, use radio, print and social media and talk to trade bodies and businesses. This was very successful with a ZWS awareness tracking study showing a rise from 15% business awareness to over 80% by the end of the campaign (samples of 500 random businesses).
In 2015, twenty-five local authorities undertook compliance sampling in a total of 6752 premises across Scotland. The results are summarised below:
62% of premises were fully compliant
20% were making some efforts to comply
18% were still using a single general waste service, i.e. making no effort to recycle
In order to reach those still failing to comply, 130,000 information leaflets were distributed to waste producers via partner organisations in November 2015.
The leaflets were also distributed to local authority waste enforcement & environmental health officers. In addition, local authorities, ZWS, Resource Efficient Scotland (RES) and Netregs all developed accessible information and other support material to enable businesses to comply.