Environment strategy: behaviour changes needed to achieve Scotland's goals for circular economy

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Background

Scotland aims to move towards a more circular economy, where we reduce the demand for raw materials, encourage reuse and repair through more responsible production, and recycle waste and energy so that the value of resources is maximised. Making this shift is an important part of tackling the climate and nature emergencies.

Everyday choices made by households such as how we shop, use, share, repair and dispose of products play a central role. To better understand how to support change, this research focused on three sectors that were identified through policy and stakeholder discussions as being particularly relevant to Scotland’s circular economy transition:

• Textiles: clothing and fabrics often have short lifespans and are linked to fast fashion and high resource use.
• Food: food production and waste contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts.
• Transport: vehicles require large amounts of materials, and changes to how we travel can reduce both emissions and resource use.

1.2 Aims

This research was commissioned to explore which everyday behaviours in these sectors have the greatest potential to support Scotland’s circular economy goals, and how these behaviours can be encouraged.

The research had two main aims:

• To identify and prioritise the types of behaviours by households and the public that would have the biggest impact in moving towards a circular economy.
• To provide recommendations on how the Scottish Government can best use its policy levers to support and encourage these behaviours.

1.3 Approach

The research combined two main strands of work:

• Reviewing existing evidence: a rapid assessment of research on circular behaviours and the interventions that can support them.
• Engaging stakeholders: a workshop involving policy decision-makers, analysts, consumer organisations, academics and consultants to discuss priorities and practical ways forward.

From this, the team developed a broad inventory of circular behaviours and applied a set of criteria to prioritise them looking at environmental impact, policy alignment, behavioural feasibility and relevance to the three focus sectors.

For each priority behaviour, the research also considered the main drivers and barriers that affect whether people adopt them and assessed the interventions most likely to help, noting what is already in place in Scotland, and where there may be gaps or opportunities to strengthen action.

This approach allowed the research to highlight the everyday behaviours with the greatest potential to make a difference in Scotland across textiles, food and transport, and to assess the kinds of interventions most likely to encourage people to adopt them.

1.4 Findings

The following sections provide a high-level summary of our findings for textiles, food and transport. It highlights:

• Priority behaviours with greatest potential impact, alignment, and feasibility
• Drivers and barriers: affecting uptake, and
• Interventions most likely to support change, noting what is already happening in Scotland and where further action could be considered.

A more detailed mapping of behaviours, drivers, barriers and interventions can be found in the main body of the report.

1.4.1 Textiles

Priority behaviours

• Optimise use: making the most of existing clothes
• Extending life: repairing and upcycling clothes.
• Getting access without ownership: borrowing or sharing items, especially when available locally.
• Minimise acquisition impact: choosing more durable items that will last longer or buying products made from circular or recycled materials.

Drivers and barriers

• Fast fashion is cheap, accessible and heavily promoted, encouraging overconsumption.
• Many people lack repair skills, and repair can be seen as old-fashioned.
• Concerns about hygiene, cost and trust affect attitudes towards second-hand and rental clothing.
• Consumers want more reliable information about clothing’s environmental and ethical impacts, and about recycling.

Interventions

• Existing efforts in Scotland
  • Zero Waste Scotland campaigns have raised awareness of textile waste, run public events, and funded reuse businesses.
  • The Circular Economy Route Map commits to more repair cafés, sharing libraries, and a Product Stewardship Plan on textiles.
  • Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered Sustainable Living Week, with education on valuing belongings and reducing consumption.

• What more could be done?

• Education: Expand campaigns to link fast fashion to environmental and labour impacts, provide practical repair and care guidance, and promote creative approaches like “slow fashion.”
• Repair access: Bring repair back into schools, support repair cafés and apps, and explore tax breaks for repair services.
• Regulation and incentives: Use charges or producer responsibility schemes to make fast fashion less accessible, and curb promotions that encourage excess buying.
• Trust and transparency: Develop eco-labels or digital product passports for clothing, and regulate recycling and reuse claims to avoid greenwashing.
• Reuse and sharing: Provide funding and space for second-hand and rental organisations and normalise community clothing swaps to reduce stigma.

1.4.2 Food

Priority behaviours

• Minimise acquisition impact: shifting diets towards more plant-based proteins (beans, lentils) and trying “circular foods” made from upcycled by-products.
• Optimise use: planning meals, shopping from cupboards first, and using up leftovers.
• Extend life: storing food correctly and using preservation techniques (freezing, drying, pickling).

Drivers and barriers

• Environmental awareness of plant-based diets is growing, but willingness to change is lower among older groups. Price, taste, and cooking knowledge strongly influence choices.
• Trust and safety concerns limit uptake of upcycled foods.
• Food waste is driven by time pressures, family dynamics, and retail practices such as bulk buying and meal deals.
• Preservation knowledge is uneven, and stigma remains around some preserved foods (e.g. tinned).

Interventions

• Existing efforts in Scotland
  • Zero Waste Scotland and WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign has raised awareness of food waste.
  • Zero Waste Scotland has produced guides on household food management and run targeted campaigns such as the “Can-paign” to address stigma around tinned food.
  • The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act provides a framework for dietary guidance and could underpin consistent messages around plant-based eating.
• What more could be done?
  • Expand education and awareness, emphasising affordability, health, and practical preparation of plant-based and preserved foods.
  • Encourage retailers to review promotions that drive waste, provide smaller pack sizes, and innovate with blended or lower-impact products.
  • Increase transparency and trusted certification for upcycled foods and sustainable diets.
  • Support practical learning through in-store demonstrations, community workshops, and packaging innovations.
  • Explore systemic approaches including further research into social and cultural food practices, economic measures such as Pay-as-you-Throw and testing canteen models or public procurement as a lever for change.

1.4.3 Transport

Priority behaviours

• Minimise acquisition impact: shifting away from private car ownership through shared transport options (car clubs, bike and e-scooter sharing, digital ride-sharing platforms).
• Optimise use: sharing journeys in private vehicles (carpooling/lift sharing) to reduce the number of cars on the road.
• Extend life: maintaining and repairing vehicles, especially bikes, and ensuring affordable access to repair services for cars.

Drivers and barriers

• Uptake of sharing schemes depends on convenience, safety, cost, digital access, and availability of infrastructure. Preferences differ between rural and urban areas.
• Environmental concern is linked to willingness to share transport, but daily commute habits strongly shape behaviour.
• Cost savings compared with car ownership are a motivator; safety concerns (especially for cycling/scooters) and trust in platforms are barriers.
• Car repair requires technical skills and can be costly, limiting consumer uptake; bike repair skills are easier to transfer.
• Community initiatives often struggle with continuity of funding, limiting their ability to support long-term behavioural change.

Interventions

• Existing efforts in Scotland
  • Transport Scotland has funded electric vehicle car sharing hubs in urban and rural areas via the Energy Saving Trust.
  • A 20% car-kilometre reduction route map (now withdrawn) set out measures such as active travel infrastructure, local work hubs, and hybrid work policies.
  • Circular Communities Scotland supports community repair services and workshops.
• What more could be done?
  • Expand and evaluate car sharing and lift-sharing schemes, drawing on pilots to develop best practice.
  • Improve infrastructure for shared and active travel (dedicated carpool lanes, safer cycle routes, better digital platforms).
  • Encourage retailers, local authorities, and employers to normalise shared travel through workplace schemes, pricing incentives, or digital matching services.
  • Support community-based repair and tool libraries with sustainable funding models, recognising their role in habit formation.
  • Revisit Scotland’s car use reduction ambitions and assess how existing efforts could be scaled or reframed into realistic, measurable goals.

Figure 1 summarises priority behaviours, drivers and barriers and interventions for circular behaviour change.

Graphic text below:

Transport, Food, and Textiles—each listing interventions, drivers and barriers, and priority behaviours for sustainable consumption. Transport includes actions like ride-sharing, car‑bike maintenance, and improved transit; Food includes plant‑based eating, reducing waste, and local food sharing; Textiles includes repair skills, clothing reuse, and product labelling. The centre highlights shared priority behaviours such as sharing transport, repairing items, reducing purchases, and managing food correctly.

1.5 Conclusions

The study identified 10 priority behaviours with the greatest potential for impact, as well as the main drivers and barriers affecting uptake, and the interventions most likely to support change. Examples include supporting people to buy fewer new clothes and keep them in use for longer, reducing household food waste through better planning and storage, and expanding access to car and bike sharing.

To deliver meaningful impact, circular behaviours need to displace the purchase of new products made from raw materials, rather than sit alongside current levels of consumption. The priority behaviours were identified as strong candidates to move Scotland along this transition.

This research explored which interventions are most likely to help people adopt circular behaviours in textiles, food and transport. It found that a mix of approaches works best combining positive measures that enable and encourage new behaviours with regulatory or financial measures that limit unsustainable ones.

Positive interventions such as education, skills-building and making sustainable options more visible and affordable are essential. But these may need to be combined with measures that discourage less sustainable practices, such as charges or regulation, to achieve meaningful change. The experience of previous policies, such as Scotland’s single-use cup charge, shows the importance of offering practical alternatives alongside restrictions.

The research also highlighted areas for further investigation, such as how best to measure the relative effectiveness of interventions, how household dynamics influence food waste, and how transport sharing schemes can be tailored to different local contexts. More detailed impact assessments to ensure, for example that approaches work for even the most rural areas. Continued engagement with stakeholders, including industry, will be also important for refining and testing the approaches identified here.

Together, these insights can help shape a coherent set of interventions that enable people in Scotland to adopt circular behaviours and contribute to tackling the climate and nature emergencies.