Circular Tayside Targets

Why it’s crucial we embrace the circular economy

• The world’s population is expected to peak at 10bn in 2050. Our resources, the earth’s raw materials, are not limitless.

• Moving to a circular economy has the potential to increase productivity and create jobs, whilst reducing carbon emissions and preserving valuable raw materials.

• By keeping products and materials in use in Scotland for longer, we will be more resilient to global resource pressures.

What are the targets?

The Scottish Government developed a strategy in 2016 to move the country towards a more circular economy, aligning its economic and environmental objectives. The strategy’s four priority areas are:

• Food, drink, and the broader bio-economy: the beer, whisky and fish industries could reduce costs by £500-800 million a year by taking a more circular approach

• Remanufacture: contributes £1.1 billion a year to Scottish GDP and could contribute £1.7 billion a year by 2020

• Construction and the built environment: generates around half of all waste produced in Scotland, so has a significant opportunity to increase resource efficiency

• Energy infrastructure: significant potential to re-use equipment from decommissioned oil, gas and renewables infrastructure (£30-35 billion is expected to be spent on oil and gas decommissioning by 2040)

we hope that more businesses will engage with the support on offer locally and help develop a truly Circular Tayside.