Managing controlled waste - code of practice: duty of care - equalities impact assessment

The Scope of the EQIA

19. This EQIA uses evidence and data collected for the previous iterations of EQIAs for the pEPR consultations and legislation. As such please refer to the 2021 Partial Equality Impact Assessment^[22], and the 2024 Equality Impact Assessment^[23] for full details on the summary of activities and further engagement undertaken.

20. Overall, the impact of packaging EPR was assessed as having no direct impacts on any of the protected characteristics groups. While a small number of possible indirect issues were discussed in earlier EQIAs, these were focused on impacts on local authorities and householders and not relevant to the collection of plastic films from the non-household municipal sector.

21. The potential indirect issues identified were:

a. Age. Older people may be affected by changes to labelling and consideration must be given for the need for inclusive communications, especially with respect to recyclability labelling. Any impacts on assisted collection services would need to be managed by the relevant local authority.

b. Disability. Some disabled people could be disproportionately affected by changes to household packaging and recycling services. Inclusive communications are an essential component of the packaging EPR scheme design to ensure maximum awareness amongst citizens and allow effective participation in local waste and recycling services.

c. Race. Any changes to household services and communications associated with reforms arising from packaging EPR would need to be made accessible in multiple languages.

22. To ensure that the proposed amendment to the existing Code has been fully considered, further consideration has been undertaken by Scottish Government officials and Zero Waste Scotland. This is in addition to activities as detailed in the existing pEPR EQIAs. This focused on identifying if any new impacts may arise from the proposed changes to the Code.