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The planned consultation on the range of commitments identified in the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, has been delayed by a number of factors, including the recent Covid-19 crisis. We remain committed to consulting on the Scottish Government’s proposals for reviewing the rural exemption for food waste in due course.

Since 2016, nine projects have been formally supported, through Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund, that utilise food and drink waste or by-products. Since 2016, Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support Service has supported 15 SMEs in the pursuit of turning food waste or food by-product into secondary products. Additionally, support has been provided to targeted sectors under Zero Waste Scotland’s Food and Drink Advice and Support Service through the provision of food waste audits. Food waste audits have been provided to 30 bakeries and 10 breweries, identifying the opportunity to provide waste bread to breweries as a malt replacement in brewing amongst other waste prevention measures, including redistribution opportunities.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture (SIR) has enabled 23 companies to deploy new manufacturing technologies and processes into their businesses in Scotland. The SIR and the University of Strathclyde have also worked with standard setting bodies to develop remanufacturing standards, influenced the creation of the European Remanufacturing Council, and had involvement with product specific steering committees.

Further to the answer S5W-31925, the Scottish Government, through Zero Waste Scotland, has established three re-use hubs. The purpose of these hubs is to capture material that would otherwise have been disposed of thereby contributing to the aim in Making Things Last: A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland “to encourage increased capture rates, to deliver economies of scale for the sector and to create recognised reuse superstores for consumers”.

Support remains available for further larger-scale facilities via the Circular Economy Investment Fund.

The Scottish Government has regular dialogue with organisations across all levels of football to discuss a wide range of issues, including community and amateur football.

Making Things Last: A Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland set out that the reuse economy in Scotland has a yearly turnover of at least £244 million, supports over 6,000 jobs, reuses 89,000 tonnes of material annually, and provides opportunities for individuals to obtain high quality products at considerably lower cost than new. This data came from a baseline report ( ) which was used to inform support for reuse.

Progress against this baseline is measured in a number of ways. Zero Waste Scotland are working with Social Investment Scotland to map out key reuse and repair activities led by the community sector within each local authority area.

Progress in growing the reuse economy is evident through a range of other indicators, including the expansion of the Revolve network which now has over 135 certified stores across Scotland. There has also been a recent 12 percent increase in consumer awareness in shopping second hand. Annual data is gathered on the Revolve network to show the impact of the sector on jobs and turnover and to track trends. Internal analysis from Zero Waste Scotland indicates that, on a per store basis, sales income and the number of items reused across the network has almost doubled between 2017-18 and 2018-19 and the tonnage of material reused has increased significantly.

In addition, Community Resource Network Scotland issue an annual impact report for the community sector ( ) .

Annual data is not available for the quantities or types of all materials diverted, but that we do have some data for priority materials. Materials that could have ended up in the food waste stream have been diverted through redistribution to people, to animals or to the bioeconomy. Zero Waste Scotland launched their Food Redistribution Matchmaking Service in July 2020 and this service looks to partner redistribution organisations with businesses who have surplus edible food to feed people.

Distillery by-products are an important feed for the livestock sector. In 2019 for instance, 112,000 tonnes of whisky by-products was diverted to animal feed. Food surplus from manufacturing, retail and hospitality and food service is also diverted to produce animal feed, 660,000 tonnes across the UK in 2015.

Fareshare receives some financial support from the Scottish Government and since 2014 has redistributed over 10,000 tonnes of surplus to people and away from the waste stream.

The response to S5W-32342 provides details of Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund, Circular Economy business Support Service and Food and Drink Advice and Support Services that relates to materials being diverted to the bio economy and therefore not entering the waste stream.

Inedible food waste that cannot be utilised for purposes higher up the hierarchy of food should be diverted to anaerobic digestion, composting and landspreading. Estimates of quantities of materials diverted from the food waste stream through anaerobic digestion and composting are shown in the table below:

Zero Waste Scotland and the Scottish Government have been actively working together to support sustainable procurement in a wide range of sectors and organisations. Since the launch of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan in 2019, support on food waste prevention has initially been provided to procurement teams in Scotland Excel and NHS Scotland. The development of best practice guidance and the roll out of dedicated training sessions is underway and the implementation and delivery of this is due in 2021.

Table 1 shows Scottish Government advertising spend for campaigns that have promoted food waste reduction since 2013-14. This includes spend on Scottish Government’s national campaign, ‘Food Waste Gone Bad’ which aims to promote food waste recycling. The Scottish Government 2018-19 ‘Food Waste Gone Bad’ campaign has most recently been evaluated. This campaign generated awareness of 47% and most notably, 76% of people who saw the campaign took action as a result, with a corresponding increase of 4 percentage points in the proportion of the target audience recycling food waste at ‘every opportunity’.

In terms of measurement, we refer to response S5W-32336, on 10 November 2020, S5W-32200 on 30 October 2020, and S5W-32198 on 30 October 2020, which highlight that annual data is not currently collected or held centrally for the categories identified in this question; however, actions to develop monitoring and reporting infrastructure, together with improvement in measurement methodologies, will support an enhanced capacity for food waste and surplus measurement and reporting going forward.A full review of the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan progress is scheduled for 2021.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at