Phase out single use and harmful products
Ban single use produces like vapes and those which have a harmful environmental impact in use or upon disposal.
The current single use plastics ban is welcome, but only tackles a small range of products. The Scottish Government consulted on extending the ban to other items at the end of 2022, and again specifically on disposable vapes in February 2024 but this needs to be progressed urgently. There is the potential to do so much more.
Rather than tackling individual items, the Scottish Government should set a target date to ban all single use items where readily available alternatives exist1. For high volume and material resource products, such as coffee cups, earlier bans should be implemented.
So far, there has been little to no enforcement of the single use plastics ban since it has been introduced and this needs to change.
One potential route to remove single use items is through the strong delivery of a product stewardship scheme, see the policy on this in this chapter. A key example of a product that should be targeted by this would be vapes.
For further information:
- Policy Paper for Scotland Circular Economy Bill, Circular Communities Scotland, May 2022, https://www.circularcommunities.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Scotlands-Circular-Economy-Bill-Policy-Paper.pdf
Some limited exceptions will be needed for example for medical use