Scotland not doing enough to cut back on use of resources, say campaigners

Campaigners are demanding Scotland does more to cut back on the use of materials as Thursday marked the day humans will have used up their quota of the Earth’s biological resources.

The Global Footprint Network said this year’s Earth Overshoot Day will fall on July 28, two days earlier than last year and several weeks sooner than 2020 when it fell on August 22.

Kim Pratt, Friends of the Earth Scotland’s circular economy campaigner, said it was “shocking and distressing that we’ve reached Earth Overshoot Day so early in the year”.

“Scotland is not doing nearly enough to reduce our use of materials to sustainable levels. We need to make significant changes to the way we use materials and fast,” she said.

Campaigners said Scots use double their fair share of Earth’s resources, with an 18-tonne footprint for each person every year.

The Scottish Government is currently pushing through a law which would ban companies from destroying unsold durable goods, as part of a range of measures to increase reuse and recycling rates.

The Circular Economy Bill will also include measures to introduce charges for single-use coffee cups and other disposable beverage containers.

Ms Pratt said there was the “the opportunity to create a future within planetary limits with the introduction of a new circular economy law”.

She added: “Targets to reduce our consumption to sustainable levels must be at the heart of the new law.

“The Scottish Government must be bold and embed circularity throughout all of Scotland’s economic sectors and every level of government.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are already taking action, including banning some of the most problematic single-use plastic products, our £70 million Recycling Improvement Fund, our £2 million Circular Textiles Fund and the UK’s first deposit return scheme.

“Our consultations on a Circular Economy Bill and a Waste Route Map set out the key proposed actions and the tools we will put in place to help everyone play their part in cutting waste in our economy, capitalising on the economic opportunities that a circular economy presents to businesses.

“Also later this year we will publish an ambitious new biodiversity strategy which aims to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and reverse it by 2045.

“The Circular Economy Bill will give us the powers to cut waste in our economy, while preserving precious resources and protecting our natural environment.”