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Publication - Minutes

Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group Minutes: October 2026

Published
26 October 2026
Directorate
Marine Directorate
Topic
Environment and climate change
Date of meeting
1 October 2026

Minutes from the meeting of the group on 01 October 2026.

Part of

Attendees and apologies

Anne Saunders, Marine Directorate, Scottish Government  

Morag Campbell, Marine Directorate, Scottish Government  

Ewan Macdonald, Marine Directorate, Scottish Government 

Anne Dagg, Circular Economy Division, Scottish Government  

Wendy Murray, Coastal Communities Network 

Jamie Clarkson, Fidra 

Emma Glencross, Keep Scotland Beautiful 

Terrie Sawyer, Local Coastal Partnerships  

Catherine Gemmell, Marine Conservation Society 

Craig Fraser, Scottish Environment Protection Agency  

Rachel Watson, Scottish Fishermen's Federation 

Nina Valentine, Scottish Fishermen's Federation  

John Berry, Scottish Islands Federation 

Vicki Last, Scottish Islands Federation 

Connie Black, Scottish Water 

Boe McLean, 2050 Climate Group 

 

Apologies  

Lynda Webster, Marine Directorate, Scottish Government 

Craig Swanney-Bernales, Circular Economy Division, Scottish Government  

Toby Sandison, Crown Estate Scotland 

Thomasina Glover, Islay Development Initiative  

Julia Cant, KIMO UK 

Lauren Smith, Local Coastal Partnerships  

Mark Hartl, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland  

Karen Hall, NatureScot 

Candice Hale, Salmon Scotland  

Bethan Akgun, Scottish Water 

Bess Homer, Scottish Water  

Nick Gosling, Transport Scotland 

Caroline Hutton, Transport Scotland 

Sam Moir, Zero Waste Scotland  

Items and actions

Agenda 

  1. Welcome 

  1. Updates from Marine Directorate 

  1. Actions from the previous meeting 

  1. MLS action plan updates  

  1. Break 

  1. Presentation: MCS & SIF on Beachwatch and island litter 

  1. AOB 

  1. Next meeting date  

 

Welcome, introductions 

AS welcomed everyone and introduced three stand-ins for this meeting, and one new representative.  

 

Updates from Marine Directorate 

Marine Litter Strategy mid-point review 

  • the action plan published beside the Strategy has been updated, as previously agreed, as this is a live document  

 

Marine Fund Scotland (MFS) 

  • successful applicants are currently being contacted, an announcement will be made in the coming weeks 

 

OSPAR – pontoons and buoys 

  • OSPAR Decision 2025/02 has been adopted and published, with the intention to prevent plastic pollution through the release of expanded polystyrene, extruded polystyrene, and other foamed plastic, from pontoons and buoys 

  • this Decision applies to non-coated and fully coated pontoons and buoys, and partially coated pontoons 

  • this work will be progressed at a UK level, to which all four nations will contribute 

 

OSPAR – beach litter monitoring 

  • Scottish Government has been working with CEFAS and MCS on further additions to the suite of monitoring beaches. There are currently five beaches in Scotland, and there is an interest in investigating additional beaches including on islands 

 

OSPAR – pellet monitoring on beaches 

  • a draft methodology has been agreed, trials are currently being conducted in various OSPAR countries 

  • MCS currently liaising with two sites which have offered to trial the sampling methodology in Scotland. CEFAS trialling the methodology in SW England 

 

Pellet pollution 

  • the EU published a pellet loss prevention regulation in November 2025. OSPAR commissioned an evaluation of this, which is expected to be published later this year 

 

Sewer misuse discussion forum 

  • continuing on a monthly basis, convened by Defra  

 

 

Actions from the previous meeting 

 

There were two actions from the previous meeting.  

  1. MC to provide HM with a contact point in British Plastics Federation. Completed 

  1. AS to update Fidra and MCS on plastic pellet monitoring on beaches. Completed: The OSPAR ‘micro and meso plastic’ monitoring is the OSPAR plastic pellet monitoring on beaches which AS referred to under agenda item 2 

 

 

MLS Action Plan updates 

 

Strategic Direction 1 - Improve public and business attitudes and behaviours around marine and coastal litter, in co-ordination with the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy 

 

Objective: Encourage positive behaviour and deter littering and flytipping 

 

Circular Economy Division – Waste Prevention 

  • action ongoing: the National litter and flytipping strategy: year 2 update and year 3 action plan 2025-2026 - gwas published in October 2025. This outlines progress across behaviour change, data, and community engagement, and sets out the Year 3 focus, including continued work on regulations for littering from vehicles, development of strengthened flytipping enforcement measures, continued partnership working with enforcement bodies, support for community action through the Community Litter Hub, targeted litter prevention activity, and ongoing improvements to litter and flytipping data and evidence 

  • delivery partners, including Scottish Government, Keep Scotland Beautiful and SEPA, continue to work collaboratively to improve prevention, behaviour change, enforcement and data collection relating to litter and flytipping 

  • we continue to work across Scottish Government to consider the implications of the UK Government’s Waste Crime Action Plan 

  • the Year 4 action plan is due to be published later in 2026 

 

Objective: Improve waste management in the fishing and aquaculture sector 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • following stakeholder engagement activity in Autumn 2025, work on the option that was seen as most viable by industry – a gear collection and processing hub – has now begun as a short-term trial  

  • action completed: CEN standard published November 2024. A review of effectiveness is now being conducted 

  • action ongoing: much of the responsibility for work on Port Waste Facilities sits with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency 

  • Scottish Government are currently updating the work within remit, including an update for 2026 on the availability of waste facilities at Scotland’s main ports and harbours  

  • Scottish Government are contributing to the OSPAR RAP2 action, into a review of the PRF Directive, including how it is being implemented, if it is working as it should do, and a template of actions that countries can take forward 

 

Objective: Improve waste management for collected marine litter 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: MFS has supported work on polymer net and rope recycling 

 

Objective: Reduce sewage related debris through a behavioural change campaign 

 

Scottish Water 

  • action ongoing: Currently no estimated end date. The next phase of the campaign named 'Nature Calls: Soak Up the Rain' was launched in May 2026 and highlights how small, practical actions at home can help to reduce surface water, and therefore discharge into sewers and flooding 

 

Strategic Direction 2 - Reduce marine and coastal based sources of litter, with a focus on the most problematic sources, in coordination with land sourced litter being reduced by the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy 

 

Objective: Reduce plastic pellet loss into the marine environment 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: the PAS continues to be promoted by British Plastics Federation, which runs training courses and workshops for awareness raising within the industry 

  • action completed: certification scheme launched February 2023 

  • action ongoing: a review of the effectiveness of the certification scheme has been completed, and is due to be published later this year  

 

Objective: Improve the ability of the fishing industry to retrieve lost fishing gear from the sea. 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: work on new tools and technology as opportunities arise 

  • action completed: CEN standard published November 2024. A review of effectiveness is now being conducted 

 

Objective: Reduce sources of sewage-related debris (SRD). 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • all four nations worked together to introduce separate legislation, aligned on the scope and intent of the ban, exemptions for wet wipes for medical and industrial uses, and an 18-month transition period to allow business to make necessary adjustments 

  • throughout the process all four nations remained aligned as closely as possible on dates. Coming into force dates will apply as follows: Wales - December 2026, England and Northern Ireland - May 2027, Scotland - August 2027 

  • action ongoing: potential policy options on other sewage-related debris items remains a long-term action. Scottish Government are beginning to look at data to provide evidence for future work 

  • we continue to work through the UK arm of the ISO process to develop an international standard for period products (single-use and reusable) with the inclusion of clauses to reduce their environmental impact 

 

Scottish Water 

  • action completed: 1000 EDM facilities have been installed 

  • action ongoing: continued development of EDM programme. 3,000 EDMs overall to be installed by December 2027. By 1 June 2026 SW aimed to have 2,000 overflows reporting spill events in near real-time to the SW Overflow Map. This target was met. SW are continuing rollout on the basis of priority and cost / benefit analysis, with the current number on the Map being 2,071 

  • action completed: 85 CSO solutions have been designed and developed 

  • action ongoing: deliver solutions at CSOs that are already confirmed as being high priority through having significant SRD impacts on the environment. 17 overflows with water quality impacts and 68 overflows with SRD impacts will be removed from the high priority list by December 2027 

  • action ongoing: develop solutions at CSOs that are already confirmed as being medium priority through having SRD impacts on the environment. 150 overflows with SRD impacts confirmed as being medium priority are undergoing development. Nine projects will be delivered by December 2027 where associated with high priority overflows. Solutions will be developed for approximately 30 overflows by December 2027, and the remainder will follow thereafter (into our next SW investment period) 

  • action completed: five aesthetic studies completed 

 

 

Strategic Direction 3 - Support the removal of marine litter from the marine and coastal environment 

 

Objective: Reduce the cost of disposal of collected marine litter 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: Scottish Government continues to work toward a solution for analysis of litter composition, potentially with Glasgow City Council / another partner organisation. This may need funding for analysis work 

 

Objective: Increase the number of rivers in Scotland with co-ordinated projects to reduce litter levels, including removal 

 

Keep Scotland Beautiful 

  • awaiting outcome of funding application for Upstream Battle. Through other funding sources for Clean Up Scotland and our work as part of the NLFS, we have still been able to support communities tackle marine litter from source. This has included: supporting activities and promotion of the Big Forth Clean Up; joining a Clean Up with SIF and the Scottish Coastal Clean Up on Skye; and ensuring there were key activities linked to #SpringCleanScotland that were riverine/waterway/coastal focused (including a Big Clyde Clean Up) 

 

Objective: Expansion of the Fishing for Litter project  

 

KIMO 

  • action completed: 529 vessels are currently participating in the scheme in Scotland 

  • action ongoing: FfL now has a Research and Sustainability Manager, which has led to several successful recycling coalition projects, with 26.5 tonnes of marine litter and end-of-life gear going to recycling, to be made into new products. It is possible these projects are the first of its kind where marine users have come together to recycle suitable materials. The benefit for FfL is the opportunity to recycle material otherwise unsuitable for recycling, or in too small a quantity 

 

Objective: Support the installation of riverine litter removal technology in the River Clyde 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: GCC are continuing to investigate the feasibility of this project 

 

 

Strategic Direction 4 - Improve monitoring at a Scottish scale and develop measures for strategy evaluation 

 

Objective: Use of Fishing for Litter initiative data to evaluate industry engagement 

 

KIMO 

  • action ongoing: Total weight of litter collected from 1 January to 22 September 2026 is 61.432 tonnes. Since the start of the project in 2005 a total of 2,759.184 tonnes of marine litter has been collected in Scotland. FfL are currently conducting analysis of their entire database to determine the amount of marine litter from different coastlines and other relevant variables  

 

Objective: Accurate assessments of marine plastics in Scottish waters 

 

Marine Directorate (Science) 

  • action completed: one new beach in the north-east was added to the OSPAR monitoring; and the Quality Status Report 2023 has been published  

 

Objective: Development of an agreed methodology for inter-tidal microplastic monitoring 

 

MASTS and Marine Directorate (Science) 

  • action ongoing: work on the Joint Research Council microplastics in sediment assessment methodology is a long term action. Whilst there is an agreed methodology for assessing microplastics in water, there is so far no agreed methodology published for extracting microplastics from sediments 

  • long-term monitoring of microplastics in Scottish intertidal sediments in the Firth of Forth and Orkney is ongoing 

  • action ongoing: work on an OSPAR agreed methodology for sediment microplastic monitoring is long term and complex. A survey has been sent out across all contracting parties to identify challenges on monitoring 

 

Objective: Social science evaluation of the Marine Litter Strategy 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

 

Objective: Understanding Scottish island beach litter 

 

Marine Directorate (Science) and Scottish Islands Federation (SIF) 

  • action completed: the monitoring of beach litter on Scottish islands has improved 

  • action ongoing: a monitoring programme has been established to understand sources of island marine litter 

  • the project funded by the Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation on fishing and aquaculture related litter concluded at the end of May. The project has been a progression from the first project to not only increase the number of Beachwatch surveys across Scottish islands but to develop a new citizen science project in collaboration with SIF to build an evidence base on different types of fishing and aquaculture litter. Pilot results have been published - Littoral Lotto  

  • a new dedicated Scottish islands webpage on the MCS website includes links to the survey form, data entry portal, and the fishing and aquaculture litter photo ID guide created by SIF, which will remain live for SIF to keep using post-project. Over the summer MCS secured further funding to roll out the project wider across Scotland, and to complete stakeholder engagement surveys and interviews to discuss potential policy solutions 

 

 

Strategic Direction 5 - Maintain and strengthen stakeholder co-ordination in Scotland, the UK, EU and globally  

 

Objective: Expand communications and understanding of Marine Litter Strategy work with delivery partners 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: opportunities for the MLSSG to champion the work of the strategy. Some examples in this period include: KSB has been supporting co-ordination between the MLS and NLFS through integrating more content on marine litter on the Community Litter Hub and through ongoing promotion of citizen science programmes gathering litter data as part of the Citizen Science Co-ordinators Forum; Local Coastal Partnerships continue with schools outreach; Coastal Communities Network continues to run workshops and other engagement opportunities; MCS took part in a panel session on understanding the Scottish islands litter objective at the International Royal Geographical Society conference, London, alongside SIF  

 

Objective: Build on and strengthen working relationships with wider UK 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: Scottish Government continues to contribute to the UK negotiating position on the UN Plastics Treaty. Marine Directorate contributes expertise on pellets, and fishing and aquaculture gear in particular 

 

Objective: Increase engagement with OSPAR (which includes the European Commission) through: participation in and implementation of the Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter; and taking a lead role with relevant actions. 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action ongoing: Scottish Government continues to lead on the plastic pellet work and co-lead on fishing and aquaculture gear. We also contribute to work on the disposal of recreational vessels 

  • work of particular interest under the two committees (EIHA and HASEC) includes exposed polystyrene in buoys and pontoons, chemicals related to the aquaculture industry, and exhaust scrubbers in shipping. The next committee meetings will be held in November 2026 

 

Action point 1: CF asked for an update on any work regarding artificial pitch infill.  

Completed: MC and AS have sent CF the most recent information they have been made aware of.  

 

Objective: Strengthen co-ordination across the British-Irish Council region 

 

Marine Directorate (Policy) 

  • action completed: the Marine Litter Working Group and the Marine Environment Group have concluded their work and have been closed. Any potential future marine work will now be conducted through the Environment Group 

 

 

Any Other Business 

 

None raised.  

 

 

Next meeting date  

 

Late November / early December 2026. 

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