National litter and flytipping strategy: year 2 update and year 3 action plan 2025-2026

Year 2 Action Plan – update on progress

Year 2 action

Litter

1. Targeted behaviour-based interventions

Work with key stakeholders (local authorities, duty bodies and businesses) to use existing qualitative and quantitative data to identify and target litter types or items (including new and emerging types), develop, and implement an innovative behaviour-based intervention (for example, assessing the effectiveness and costs of intervention to tackle roadside litter using new littering from vehicles provision), evaluating its impact and potential for wider roll-out.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: A roadside litter intervention was successfully developed and delivered in Perth and Kinross focused on A9 with support from Perth and Kinross Council, private sector, communities and other stakeholders.

This intervention had a positive impact on levels of roadside litter, an event to share the learning and the results from the intervention was held in Perth and attended by stakeholders from across Scotland, a key part of the event was a discussion on next steps to tackle roadside litter; the full report can be found online.

2. Empowering communities

Further develop and expand Hub to widen range of information, advice and support available to community groups and other local organisations (including peer support) to enable them to tackle litter and littering behaviour.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: The Community Litter Hub was developed and expanded in line with agreed development plan, promotion of Hub was undertaken to reach a range of audiences across Scotland, engagement with the Community Reference Group was undertaken on new sections and content, Phase 2 of Hub is complete and a development plan for Year 3 in place. Community Litter Hub can be found online.

3. Engaging communities

Implement a phased roll out of education programme nationally to build capacity and capability in community groups and other local organisations to tackle litter and littering behaviour.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: Further roll-out and testing of the education programme was undertaken with a range of audiences nationwide both face-to-face and online. The resource is complete and available for use. An evaluation of the module was undertaken and plans for future development are in place.

Flytipping

4. Improve communications on current householder duty of care obligations in relation to the disposal household waste.

All delivery partners will consider action that can be taken to raise awareness of the duty of care in advance of the Circular Economy Act section that will introduce the Fixed Penalty Notice regime coming into force.

Lead organisation: All partners

Progress/update: All delivery partners have used their websites and other communications channels to highlight the importance of householders using legitimate waste services. Development work is now underway to support future implementation, with early-stage planning for a coordinated campaign to raise awareness of householders’ legal responsibilities under duty of care provisions. This work will continue over the coming months, with messaging designed to clarify expectations on householders.

5. Support householders to dispose of waste responsibly.

SEPA will promote the waste carriers register on the SEPA website and review public accessibility to the information.

Lead organisation: SEPA

Progress/update: SEPA’s waste carrier’s register can be found on their new website. This list can be searched by name, registration number or registered address.

SEPA continue to highlight the importance of ensuring people are only using registered waste carriers. This is “evergreen” digital content, which means it is regularly shared across social channels.

6. Sharing information and best practice.

Share information and support resource sharing between key stakeholders and fora including the Litter Managers Network, SPARC and Flytipping Forum.

Lead organisation: Scottish Government

Progress/update: During Year 2, the Scottish Government has continued to prioritise engagement and information sharing through regular attendance at key stakeholder meetings. Officials have attended several meetings of the Litter Managers Network (LMN), held quarterly meetings of the Strategy Delivery Group (SDG), contributing to discussions on the delivery of actions under the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. In addition, the Scottish Government and SEPA attend SPARC and the SOCT Environmental Waste Crime Working Group, ensuring that Scottish Government is actively engaged with waste crime and environmental enforcement partners. This coordinated engagement has strengthened collaborative working, supported knowledge exchange, and helped build a shared understanding of challenges and opportunities across the sector.

7. Review the role and remit of the Flytipping Forum to ensure the current approach is helpful to sharing expertise, information and coordinated action.

Lead organisation: Scottish Government

Progress/update: Forum members were invited to provide feedback on the Forum’s effectiveness, including views on membership, meeting format, and opportunities for improvement. Following feedback from members, it was concluded that engaging with other existing structures; including the Strategy Delivery Group (SDG), Litter Managers Network (LMN) and SPARC, provided more opportunities to reach out to Forum members, and others, to engage and collaborate. The Flytipping Forum will be disbanded.

8. Improve enforcement by providing the Cairngorms National Park Authority with enforcement powers, replicating the current powers that Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park have.

Lead organisation: Scottish Government

Progress/update: The Scottish Government has engaged with the Cairngorms National Park Authority to explore the introduction of enforcement powers. However, following consideration of competing priorities, it has been agreed that now is not the right time to pursue this further. This action remains under review and may be progressed at a future date.

9. Improving enforcement work with COPFS to ensure any guidance or other relevant resources is shared with stakeholders where appropriate.

Lead organisation: Scottish Government

Progress/update: COPFS provided helpful insights into the challenges they face with some of the flytipping cases submitted to them for court proceedings and expressed willingness to continue to provide insights and advice to litter and flytipping stakeholders, as they have provided this previously via LMN and other relevant networks.

10. Clarification of roles and responsibilities (Continuation of Year 1 Action 10):

SEPA will extend and expand the trial of the new enforcement approach model to more local authority areas.

Lead organisation: SEPA

Progress/update: Through the trialling of the model over the past 12 months, SEPA has served six Variable Monetary Penalties on offenders totalling over £21,000 in penalties and over £6,000 in costs payable to SEPA.

In the model being trialled, local authorities take forward an initial investigation which can include the collection of evidence and statements, before referring relevant cases for discussion with SEPA, to consider the most appropriate enforcement action.

Around half of all local authorities have been engaged with the project so far.

11. Support for landowners

The landowners guidance document will continue to be developed with case studies from the grant fund applicants, good practice from landowners and information on section 59. The other flagged issues will be taken to SDG to consider how best to progress. A landowners group will be formally established to support this.

Lead organisation: SEPA

Progress/update: SEPA is looking to produce overall guidance on its new regulatory powers under the Environmental Authorisations Scotland Regulations (EASR) which include powers for tackling the illegal disposal of waste. These powers will take effect from November 2025 therefore SEPA is assessing the value in producing guidance on SEPA’s use of Section 59 notices.

Options for further engagement with private landowners will be explored through existing groups (e.g. SDG, LMN, SPARC) if there is appetite, rather than through a standalone Forum.

12. Private landowner’s grant

Zero Waste Scotland will promote and administer the relaunched grant in 2024/25 and will continue to encourage development of innovative projects that aim to prevent flytipping on private land.

Lead organisation: Zero Waste Scotland

Progress/update: Two rounds of funding were offered, with round one closing in September 2024 and round two closing in October 2024. Ten applications were received and seven were funded, to a total of £38,639. A final report, including case studies, is in development.

13. Use digital technologies to detect and disrupt flytippers:

Continue to use digital interventions to deter and disrupt unregistered waste carriers advertising online (as well as rogue operators operating behind a waste carrier registration).

Lead organisation: SEPA

Progress/update: Results for project to date:

Number of profiles identified – 300 (51% with no registration in place)

Public Facebook posts - 86

Texts to illegal operators – 61

Profiles closed – 32

Waste carrier registrations received - 9

Number of FMPs issued – 7 totalling over £2,000

This work also led to the investigation of an unlicensed site which has now been cleared of waste. Operational difficulties have been encountered in accessing Facebook community groups, where many unregistered operators are now believed to be advertising. Restrictions on what corporate accounts can do on Facebook regarding direct messaging (DMs) are also proving to be a barrier to tackling the problem.

Litter and Flytipping

14. Joint working with stakeholders:

Through engagement with stakeholders, develop an approach to improving the effectiveness, efficiency and consistency of prevention activity, building on engagement undertaken in Year 1.

Lead organisation: Zero Waste Scotland

Progress/update: A set of engagement materials have been produced for a list of stakeholders which introduced prevention for litter and flytipping and the NLFS aims. These have been created following gathering of information from sector representatives. The materials are ready to be circulated for wider review before being issued.

Data Improvement: Litter and Flytipping

15. Development of a Litter & Flytipping Data Strategy:

The Data Management Group will review the recommendations paper and support the development of a work plan to continue to development of the Data Strategy.

Lead organisation: Zero Waste Scotland

Progress/update: The Data Management Group has continued to meet regularly to support data management and scoping for strategy development. Zero Waste Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful have continued to host, support and develop data collection from local authorities.

16. Developing litter data:

Building on existing litter data collection and analysis, engage with a wider range of stakeholders and ensure a common approach to data management, analysis and use - improving collection, analysis and use of data, based on initial activity completed in Year 1, linking with the data strategy and development of LMS, including the prioritisation of data sets collected in Year 1 and the use, relevance and data sharing agreements. Also building on identified gaps in data collection in Year 1, defining options for collecting the missing data and potentially engaging with academics to research the cause and effect of littering, utilising current litter data.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: Significant progress has been made in Year 2 in terms of engagement with a wider range of stakeholders and development of a common approach to data management, analysis and use.

This included discussion and agreement of next steps in relation to the Litter Monitoring System (LMS) and possible transition to a new approach.

17. Improving consistency of litter data (continuing Action 17):

Actively promote and improve quality and consistency of citizen science to support litter data collection and complement existing programmes and utilising the Delivery Plan developed in Year 1.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: Significant progress has been made with this action to improve the quality and consistency of citizen science to support litter data collection and complement existing programmes, this included establishment of a Citizen Science Coordinators Forum (CSCF).

18. Leadership, management, and facilitation of the Data Management Group to support litter and flytipping data actions, recognising that the group provides an important resource for the development and delivery of these actions.

Lead organisation: Keep Scotland Beautiful

Progress/update: The Data Management Group is well-established with representation from a broad range of relevant organisations and a clear workplan.

19. Developing flytipping data: map the data collection process currently being undertaken by enforcement agencies against the information that they can be required to supply to Scottish Ministers (as set out in Section 13 of the Circular Economy Act) to better understand the most effective way to progress towards effective and accurate national reporting.

Lead organisation: Scottish Government

Progress/update: APSE supported an initial survey of Scottish local authorities to determine the processes used to collect flytipping data. Approximately a third of local authorities replied. The responses indicated that there is not a consistent approach to collecting data.