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The Island Communities Impact Assessment makes clear that the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme will not increase the amount of waste that will arise in island communities as most waste is currently transported off the islands. Furthermore, as part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Deposit Return Scheme Strategic Environmental Assessment: Post Adoption Statement’ at table 3.1 Mitigation of environmental effect does set out the “effects (including greenhouse gas emissions) from the potential for increased vehicle movements from consumers, retailers and reprocessors” and it highlights a number of proposed mitigation actions to minimise carbon emissions. The Scottish Government, Circularity Scotland, and our business partners are developing solutions which build on these proposals where possible. The Scottish Government does not consider an additional assessment necessary at this stage.

A) SEPA is the regulator for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), responsible for the producer registration service and checking compliance with the Regulations. It is not within SEPA’s remit to model the carbon footprint of any transportation used for the scheme, and it has not conducted this modelling. SEPA was consulted on and responded to the consultation relating to the Deposit Return Scheme’s strategic environmental assessment (SEA) which considered the carbon emission associated with the DRS.

B) Circularity Scotland has not conducted carbon footprint modelling on their transportation network, but seek to operate to the highest ethical and environmental standards. This includes developing with their partners a solution for the collection of scheme articles on islands which makes use of local supply chains where possible in order to minimise carbon emissions.