Holyrood passes Bill to reduce waste
MSPS have approved by 116 votes to zero the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill, which introduces a series of measures aimed at reducing waste and also ensuring households and businesses dispose of their rubbish in the correct way.
While this could see people issued with a fixed penalty notice for putting the wrong items in their bins, climate action minister Gillian Martin sought to reassure Scots.
She said these would be used to deal with "repeat persistent offenders", insisting it was "not for the people who want to do the right thing and have made a mistake".
Instead Ms Martin said the fixed penalty notices would be for those who have "deliberately contaminated recycling waste".
Among its measures, the legislation will ban the disposal of unsold goods, preventing companies from sending products which have not been bought to landfill, with ministers to be given the power to set local recycling targets.
Other parts of the Bill could result in charges being brought in for single-use items such as coffee cups, while car and van drivers could be fined if anyone is caught littering from their vehicle.
Ms Martin said there was a "real need to accelerate our efforts on the circular economy", adding that the Bill would "embed" thinking on this in the government.
"We're all consumers, we must play our part in reducing waste," she said.
"That's why this Bill is so far-reaching, it impacts us all from the goods we buy to what we put in our recycling bins."
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said the Bill was a "significant step forward", adding it would help bring about changes so it is "no longer acceptable to casually extract materials to make items that will be used only once or just a few times and then thrown away".