There can’t be many folk who voted for the Scottish Green Party who aren’t mystified or disappointed by the recent priorities of their List MSPs. But what exactly should the electorate expect of them? Here are some suggestions.
Accept that Scotland’s contribution to global emissions is under 0.1% so any significant changes we might achieve are unmeasurable. Concentrate on issues that directly affect the people of Scotland rather than grandstand on headline-grabbing strategies such as ‘net zero’ and ‘the circular economy’ that aren’t deliverable.
Recognise that SEPA isn’t delivering the service that was originally expected of it in 1996. Water quality has deteriorated, and around 20% of Scotland’s waste is now handled by illegal operators. SEPA needs to be reduced to a rump (equivalent to the former HMIPI and the Hazardous Waste Unit); their Waste Regulatory powers transferred to the Unitary Councils; and the former River Purification Boards reinstated. SEPA’s role should solely be one of performance-auditing.
Accept that Keep Scotland Beautiful seems incapable of influencing the public’s attitude to dropping litter despite employing six times the staff it had four decades ago. Redeploy most of its staff among the Councils to deliver local litter awareness strategies and retain the rump for a monitoring role.
Reinvigorate the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse to ensure the public is fully aware of their entitlement to know when their local environs are due to be cleaned. Have Council Tax Bills detail the Zone in which the home has been allocated for street cleaning services and how much time the Council has to reinstate it when it gets filthy.
Stop lumping fly-tipping in with the litter problem. These are two separate issues and need completely different approaches. If the Councils had sole responsibility for regulating fly-tipping, the current arguments over ‘who is responsible?’ would disappear overnight.
Introduce legislation that requires any trader who charges for a carrier bag to display a list on their premises of the ‘good causes’ that they donate the net proceeds to. Too many of the smaller traders are keeping the charge as extra income.
Accept that despite a staff of 250 and spending a fortune on external Consultants, Zero Waste Scotland has been unable to make any improvement on Scotland’s waste recycling performances since the Scottish Government meddled with the Council’s ring-fenced funding in 2008. Redeploy most of the staff among the Councils, and set up regular liaison meetings with (S)ESA, the organisation that represents the private sector waste interests, and the Council Officers nominated to provide CoSLA with professional advice on environmental and waste management issues. This would ensure the advice offered to the politicians was more objective than apparently currently happens.
Shelve the DRS and accept we need to build on, and expand the existing established infrastructure for kerbside collections. Develop an energy from waste strategy to capture the recyclate that’s currently going to landfill.
If implemented, the foregoing would create many sustainable, ‘green’ jobs. That’s what the electorate expects of the Green Party.