What steps it is taking to remove plastic pollution from Scottish waters.

The Scottish Government is taking action across the board to reduce marine litter including via preventative as well as removal initiatives, legislation and policies under our Marine Litter Strategy.
Preventative measures to reduce plastic pollution sources have included introducing bans on rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads in 2018, and on plastic-stemmed cotton buds in 2019. We have also drafted regulations to restrict many other problematic single-use plastic items such as expanded polystyrene cups and containers, cutlery, plates, stirrers, straws, balloon sticks and all oxo-degradable products. Legislation is expected to be introduced at the end of 2021.
Many behaviour change initiatives have also been supported to reduce marine litter sources. In May 2020, regulations were passed by parliament for our ambitious Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), covering drinks in glass, PET plastic, and metal containers. We are the first UK administration to develop a Deposit Return Scheme and we believe that DRS will help raise recycling rates, cut emissions, and reduce littering.
In addition, we supported the Trial Period Campaign in 2019 promoting reusable sanitary products over single-use items. We have also supported behaviour change within industry to reduce the second largest direct source of microplastic pollution which is in the form of plastic pellets, powders and flakes, commonly known as nurdles. This has been achieved with the development of a Publicly Available Specification with the British Standards Institution to prevent loss at sites handling or managing pellets and will be published in July 2021. Future work includes building on pellet loss prevention measures and improving waste management in our fishing industry to reduce this source of litter and increase recycling rates.
To support removal, we have funded KIMO’s Fishing for Litter project which helps fishers to responsibly dispose of waste passively caught during fishing operations. We have funded the annual bulk removal of waste at Arrochar, a marine litter sink case study area where the local shore area is subject to a disproportionate level of plastic pollution. To target riverine litter which contributes to the marine plastic pollution problem, we also fund Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Upstream Battle project. The Scottish Government also recognises the important role of volunteers in removing beach litter before it is washed back to sea, and funds Local Coastal Partnerships to support local communities in organising beach cleans. The refreshed Marine Litter Strategy will increase focus on marine litter removal and target rivers which are major pathways for plastics into our seas.