The virtues of building a circular economy that works for Scotland
Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland Ciaran McGuigan on why securing a sustainable model is a better way of doing business
During our recent Roundtable with The Scotsman, a colleague made a point that I’ve been thinking about since. The case for the circular economy, when stripped right back, is that it’s simply a way of doing business better.
I agree with that. We know that making better use of materials can help Scottish businesses manage costs and find new sources of value while reducing their exposure to supply chain disruption – an increasing threat as resource pressures around the world continue.
But in the face of that knowledge is the challenge of understanding where Scotland should focus its efforts to support businesses in embracing circularity. Ultimately, we need a clear picture of how our economy uses materials and where the impacts of that material use are felt most strongly, and what could be done differently to help us make the most of the materials available to us.
Finding and following that evidence is what Zero Waste Scotland does best. As Scotland’s circular economy public body, we’re supporting the delivery of the Scottish Government’s Circular Economy Strategy, working with businesses and key stakeholders to turn the strategy’s ambitions into real, practical change.
We’ve recently published our Material Flow Accounts (MFA) to paint the most detailed picture yet of Scotland’s resource use. Its estimation is that in 2020, Scotland needed 200 million tonnes of material inputs to support our economy – equivalent to 37 tonnes per person. Only 11 tonnes of that was reflected in everyday products, with the rest mostly associated with wider economic activity like producing goods and resources for export.
A key point from our MFA showed that in 2020, 66% of the critical raw materials Scotland is dependent on were embedded in the products we import. That reliance leaves Scottish businesses exposed to disruption in global supply chains and raises questions about how efficiently we can use the materials already available to us. If we can repair products, or components can be recovered and reused, value can be retained within our economy rather than lost.
Our focus has increasingly been on identifying these opportunities – through work to deliver data like Scotland’s MFA, we’re creating a more detailed, sector by sector picture of material use and environmental impacts, using Scotland specific economic and consumption data. It’s helping us visualise where demand is greatest and where changes in how we produce and use goods could make the biggest difference, and updating this data over time will allow us to follow these patterns.
That approach carries through to our work across key sectors. Our Roadmaps to circularity, so far looking at the opportunities for our energy infrastructure and built environment, bring industry and partners together to identify the practical barriers to circularity while creating the mechanisms for action where action is needed.
As well as following how materials are flowing through Scotland’s economy, we’ve been looking at the wider economic story and how that activity is contributing to our economy and our communities. Our Circular Jobs Tracker found that Scotland’s inherently circular sectors contributed around £4 billion in GVA in 2021, supporting 56,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Through all our evidence and insights, we can see that circular activity is already a part of Scotland’s economic fabric.
But while we can see how the circular economy is already alive and thriving in Scotland, we can also see where barriers still exist for businesses not yet fully embracing it. I found it particularly valuable to hear from those at our Roundtable who like us, are working directly with businesses to help them embrace circular practices.
We know the challenges they’re facing in surviving in this increasingly volatile global economy, and our Business Information Hub is designed to help them take their first steps to unlocking the value that embracing circularity can bring.
Strong evidence and Scotland specific insights will become increasingly relevant as the Scottish Government develops its circular economy targets over the coming year.
To set meaningful targets, we need to understand the starting point to make a realistic assessment of where change is possible and how to measure it. It’ll be vital that research and modelling informs the process alongside the real experiences of our businesses and communities.
Our approach continues to develop as we get our hands on new data – that’s the nature of what we do. We need to be willing to test our assumptions and refine the approach as and when we learn more.
Another key point from the Roundtable that’s been playing on my mind – a circular economy offers Scotland a way to make better use of the resources on which our prosperity depends. Achieving it will take sustained effort across industries and sectors, but that effort also needs to be supported by public policy that’s informed by a robust understanding of our economy.
The better a picture we have of where our resources come from and where they go, the better placed we’ll be to make the right decisions that benefit our businesses, our economy, and our future.