Circular Communities Scotland welcomes The Scottish Government’s recommitment to climate action, shared through the First Minister’s speech delivered at Glasgow Botanic Gardens on Wednesday 19 February 2025.
Our CEO, Michael Cook, was in attendance to advocate for our members – charities and social enterprises leading the way in reuse, repair, and the circular economy in Scotland.
On behalf of our membership, we welcomed reference to our sector during the First Minister’s speech, in particular, mention of our member Stirling Reuse Hub.
“I think of examples, supported by Government but powered by people, like the Stirling Reuse Hub, which is saving tonnes of household goods from landfill, while enabling local artisans to upcycle unwanted wood and furniture to create revenue and support the local economy.
The Stirling Reuse Hub represents a shift in mentality that makes the best of another piece of old wisdom: why buy new, if you can restore, reuse, or repair?
And in a cost-of-living crisis, ideas such as repair cafés, distribution collectives for unused food and tool libraries are catching on, because they make sense for the planet and for our pockets.
What more must we do, as decision-makers, as leaders in our sectors, our communities, or in our country as a whole, to make examples such as this commonplace, everyday? How do we turn them from the exception into the norm?”
– First Minister of Scotland John Swinney.
Circular Communities Scotland believes strong investment, awareness raising and thoughtful policy to support our sector is key to bringing forward reuse, repair and recycling to the everyday, and from the ‘exception to the norm’ for the public in Scotland.
The benefits of reuse for our communities cannot be understated, and through the impact of our members, we can also see that reuse practises deliver against all four of the Scottish Governments priority areas: climate change, childhood poverty, growing economy and efficient public services.
Our CEO Michael Cook was able to put this to the First Minister, advocating for ambitious reuse targets for Scotland to support all four key deliverables, and to support our members and Scotland’s reuse sector more broadly.
The First Minister acknowledged the interconnected benefits of reuse and welcomed further discussions, offering a meeting with his team to explore how Scotland can drive reuse levels up and set meaningful targets.
We look forward to bringing this discussion forward, and seeing meaningful action taking place to support climate action in Scotland through reuse, repair and recycling.
On behalf of our membership, Circular Communities Scotland will continue to push for strong policy support for Scotland’s circular future.