Circular economy and waste route map to 2030: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment
Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) for Scotland's Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030.
Brief Summary
Type of proposal:
- Decision of a strategic nature relating to the rights and wellbeing of children
Name the proposal, and describe its overall aims and intended purpose.
Scotland’s Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 (‘CEWRM’)
The Scottish Government is committed to moving towards a circular economy and playing its part to tackle the climate emergency. A circular economy, based on sustainable consumption and production, is essential to power Scotland’s transition to a fair, green and sustainable economy, and critical to meeting our obligations to tackle the twin climate and nature emergencies. Material consumption and waste are primary drivers of nearly every environmental problem Scotland currently faces, from water scarcity to habitat and species loss.
Founded on evidence and collaboration, the CEWRM is part of the Scottish Government’s wider response to these challenges. It is designed to drive progress on three key fronts:
- Setting the strategic direction and laying foundations for how we will deliver our system-wide, comprehensive vision for Scotland’s circular economy from now to 2030.
- Setting out priority actions from now to 2030 to accelerate more sustainable use of our resources across the waste hierarchy.
- Reducing emissions associated with resources and waste.
The CEWRM includes a range of measures that can positively contribute to the delivery of our circular economy and resource objectives and make progress towards net zero goals. Actions have been grouped into four strategic aims, which span action across the waste hierarchy. These are:
1. Reduce and reuse
2. Modernise recycling
3. Decarbonise disposal
4. Strengthen the circular economy
Start date of proposal’s development: September 2021
Start date of CRWIA process: August 2023
With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?
Based on screening, at this stage we do not anticipate specific impacts from the publication of the Route Map on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people. The CEWRM is a strategic document designed to support planning to 2030 and beyond, however we recognise that not all policy measures are fully ready to be implemented in Scotland and are at different stages of development. The CEWRM is focused on identifying strategic aims and associated interventions. The specific policy detail for each of these will not be fully defined at this stage. It is intended that the CEWRM will enable the Scottish Government to articulate a strategic approach which will contribute towards sustainable resource use and circular economy ambitions.
While the publication of the CEWRM will not in itself result in impacts on the rights of children and young people, the screening exercise undertaken has identified that there is potential for impact once the interventions are implemented. The specific relevant proposals relating to the relevant Articles of the UNCRC are listed below. Overall it is our assessment at this stage that these impacts are likely be positive. However, given the detail of specific measures has not been defined yet, further CRWIAs may be required for the measures listed.
- Measures to deliver behaviour change-based approaches focussed on sustainable consumption, aligned to Let's Do Net Zero communications; and assessing effective communication practices to inform future standards as part of the household recycling co-design process. (Article 17 Access to information from the media).
- Measures across the Route Map, particularly in Reduce and reuse, Section 1: Responsible consumption, production and reuse. The potential for reduction in environmental pollution, and improvement of health and wellbeing that the transition to more sustainable resource use and circular economy could bring, for example through avoidance of adverse impacts on air quality as well as nuisance and odour levels. (Article 24 Health and health services).
- The measures seeking to embed circular construction practices. ( Article 27 Adequate standard of living, for example conditions of living necessary for the child’s development).
- Measures influencing accessibility to affordable goods/services, and accessibility to high quality goods/services.
For example, measures within the Reduce and reuse package (develop further measures to tackle consumption of problematic single-use items and promote uptake of reusable alternatives (including consideration of environmental charging), prioritising action on single-use drinks cups). The development and introduction of some measures which would increase the access to affordable goods via secondary markets may have the benefit of normalising second-hand and reused goods, and the socio-cultural complexities around using second-hand or reusable goods should be considered when developing relevant interventions. On the same theme, within the development of measures to improve the reuse experience for consumers, there is an intention to facilitate sharing of best practice examples on reusable items as an alternative to single-use, such as North Ayrshire Council's Real Nappy Incentive Scheme, to encourage uptake in other areas. This would likely have a positive impact for families with children, that would need to be considered through further CRWIA consideration. ( Article 27 Adequate standard of living).
- Measures to reduce food waste. Scottish Government has committed to embedding food loss and waste consideration across relevant policies and strategies, including the Good Food Nation Plan; the Local Food Strategy; the Agricultural Reform Programme; and through the review of the 2019 Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, as well as this Route Map in order to help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste and reduce food loss by 2030. ( Article 27 Adequate standard of living)
- Skills and training: The measure to support greater uptake of green skills, training, and development opportunities. This measure includes an ambition to ensure knowledge building of circular economy is embedded across the whole education and skills landscape, including:
- Supporting the post-school education and skills reform agenda including the newly formed national and regional skills planning function of the Scottish Government.
- Continuing to deliver our refreshed Learning for Sustainability Action Plan, which focuses on supporting all education settings across the 3-18 curriculum to become sustainable education settings by 2030.
(Article 29 Goals of education, with particular reference to the development of respect for the natural environment)
- Across all measures, consideration of the need to provide accessible and inclusive communications. For example on any changes to recycling collections, new householder duties or any enforcement action (e.g. within the Modernise recycling package). For example, where English is not a first language (Race), for older individuals (Age) who may require large print, or for Disabled individuals who may require Braille or other suitable communication options. Positive impacts across all of the protected characteristic groups may be realised by the production of new, clearly designed, consistent and inclusive communications. As an example, the co-design process for high quality, high performing household recycling and reuse services will build in requirements for wide stakeholder engagement. This will ensure that the needs of residents, including families with children and young people who require additional support to fully utilise council waste services are considered, and enable solutions to be appropriately designed and delivered across Scotland as necessary. The co-design will take into account the different geographical and community needs that local authorities and residents across Scotland encounter, addressing concerns raised in consultation responses about presenting an unsuitable 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
(Article 30 Children from minority or indigenous groups)
Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal
Evidence from:
- existing research/reports/policy expertise (please note this is not an exhaustive list of all relevant evidence. See the full Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030 and its other impact assessments for full list of sources).
Circular Economy and Waste Route Map research programme outputs (various, and outlined in the Route Map’s public consultations.)
The Route Map’s package of impact assessments: 2022, 2024 and updated 2025 versions. This includes the process of developing EQIAs and FSDAs, that also consider relevant evidence regarding the impact of policies on children and young people.
Route Map strategic environmental assessment report
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment
Single-use disposable cups: EPECOM recommendations, 2019, EPECOM
Single-Use Disposable Beverage Cups Charge: Equality Impact Assessment – Interim Report
Single-Use Disposable Beverage Cups Charge: Fairer Scotland Duty Summary
Circular economy in education | Zero Waste Scotland
National Good Food Nation Plan, Scottish Government 2024
Green jobs and skills development for disadvantaged groups, RAND.
Everything we buy has a carbon cost, Zero Waste Scotland, 2021.
The Use of Natural Resources in the Economy: A Global Manual on Economy Wide Material Flow Accounting, United Nations Environment Programme, 2023.
Disability Price Tag policy report, Scope, 2019.
Household expenditure by age of household reference person, Office for National Statistics, 2019.
Supporting documents - Climate change - public engagement: survey results 2022 - gov.scot Scottish Government, 2022.
Just Transition – A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Scottish Government Response, 2021.
Reuse, repair and recycling in a circular economy | Zero Waste Scotland
Scotland’s Climate Assembly Recommendations, and calls to action from the Children’s Parliament on circular economy, recycling and waste
- consultation/feedback from stakeholders
In 2022, the Scottish Government set out a range of proposals across the resources and waste system through its first CEWRM consultation. The consultation sought views on the feasibility and ambition of these proposals to drive progress against 2025 waste and recycling targets, and to achieve the long-term goal of net zero by 2045. The second and final public consultation, which ran from 18 January to 15 March 2024, requested feedback on a revised draft CEWRM. This sought to prioritise and focus on the key actions that will unlock progress across the waste hierarchy to 2030 - along with questions on the accompanying suite of impact assessments. The consultation set out further information on specific proposals, noting that each intervention will be fully defined as the measures are developed.
The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in June 2024, contains provisions to underpin Scotland's transition to a circular economy, and modernise Scotland's waste and recycling services. The Act includes new powers that will allow us to take action now and into the future. The direction and actions set out in this Route Map are complemented by the new powers in the Act and, in some places, are dependent on these powers. A child rights and wellbeing impact assessment (CRWIA) examining the possible impacts of the Circular Economy bill (now an Act) provisions was published in June 2023. The Route Map policy package contains measures which may be subject to their own CRWIA requirements as well as other relevant impact assessments and consultation.
Key links:
2022 consultation: Delivering Scotland's circular economy - route map to 2025 and beyond: consultation, and analysis of the consultation responses
2024 consultation: Circular economy and waste route map to 2030: consultation, and analysis of the consultation responses
Pre-consultation workshops (2021/22), and consultation webinar events in 2022 and 2024.
Scotland’s Climate Assembly Recommendations, and calls to action from the Children’s Parliament on circular economy, recycling and waste
Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed
No gaps identified at this stage. As set out above, the CEWRM is a strategic document designed to support planning to 2030 and beyond, however we recognise that not all policy measures are fully ready to be implemented in Scotland and are at different stages of development. The specific policy detail for each of these will not be fully defined at this stage. It is intended that the CEWRM will enable the Scottish Government to articulate a strategic approach which will contribute towards sustainable resource use and circular economy ambitions.
The publication of the CEWRM will not in itself result in impacts on children’s rights and wellbeing. However, there is potential, once the interventions are implemented, that they may have impacts, which is outlined above at question 2. As a result further CRWIAs may be required for specific measures as they are developed, and if evidence gaps are identified, should be addressed as part of the policy development process.
Contact
Email: CERouteMap@gov.scot
There is a problem
Thanks for your feedback