Technical Information: Global Footprint:
We are responsible global citizens with a sustainable international footprint

Last updated: 11 January 2024

Global environmental impact of Scotland’s consumption

Options for indicators to understand and track the overseas environmental impact of our consumption in Scotland are being considered - recognising that living with the planet’s sustainable limits will require us to reduce our consumption of the world’s resources. An indicator of Scotland’s water footprint is currently under development.



Percentage of Scotland’s waste managed in Scotland

Indicator Updated: 11 January 2024

% of waste managed in Scotland by method (%)
Year All Waste Disposed Recycled Recovered
2014 87.76 99.06 80.02 70.66
2015 89.65 98.75 84.50 75.22
2016 86.42 96.65 83.90 50.03
2017 86.15 97.56 83.07 50.78
2018 86.77 96.94 82.07 69.49
2019 NA NA NA NA
2020 NA NA NA NA
2021 87.73 98.77 81.25 84.64

This indicator reports for each type of treatment (recycled, recovered or disposed), the annual amount of Scotland’s waste managed in Scotland by volume as a percentage of Scottish waste managed anywhere. Recovered waste is used for fuel and energy generation. Disposed waste includes waste landfilled or disposed by incineration.

Source: The underlying waste volume data is produced by SEPA, from which the indicator is calculated. A summary of the waste generated and managed in Scotland is available here. All waste data for Scotland is available here.

Update Frequency: Annual

Further Information: Please note that figures for 2019 and 2020 are unavailable due to the cyber-attack on SEPA in December 2020. Since the cyber-attack, various tools have been completely re-built to administer, aggregate, analyse, and check waste data returns, which have been received at slightly lower rates in 2021 than previously. Furthermore, during 2021, many areas of the Scottish economy and waste management continued to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many changes due to COVID-19, and the impact of the cyber-attack, this was clearly an atypical year and SEPA have indicated that care should be taken when comparing this snapshot of 2021 with longer term trends.



Sustainability of fish stocks

Indicator Updated: 11 January 2024

% of fish stocks fished sustainably (%)
Year Fish mortality below maximum sustainable yield Spawning Stock Biomass below maximum sustainable yield trigger point Combined mean
1991 14.12 43.88 29.00
1992 19.31 49.86 34.58
1993 14.76 46.24 30.50
1994 16.88 51.63 34.26
1995 16.56 52.61 34.58
1996 12.82 50.77 31.80
1997 15.75 56.12 35.93
1998 11.25 59.23 35.24
1999 12.18 53.78 32.98
2000 16.01 51.55 33.78
2001 15.80 53.71 34.75
2002 20.82 58.20 39.51
2003 31.14 55.88 43.51
2004 33.51 58.91 46.21
2005 30.89 55.34 43.12
2006 29.98 53.33 41.66
2007 30.24 49.56 39.90
2008 33.95 57.55 45.75
2009 44.20 67.77 55.98
2010 49.63 72.13 60.88
2011 47.22 72.34 59.78
2012 57.75 69.16 63.46
2013 58.76 64.73 61.74
2014 49.13 64.62 56.88
2015 51.48 72.23 61.85
2016 51.09 74.61 62.85
2017 41.09 81.53 61.31
2018 47.68 80.90 64.29
2019 51.62 80.70 66.16
2020 55.37 82.44 68.91

This National Statistics indicator reports the percentage of Scottish fish stocks each year which are fished sustainably i.e. fished at or below the level at which the fish are able to replenish themselves, without stocks being depleted.

Source: Data for this indicator for each relevant fish stock are taken from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) assessments of annual fishing mortality and the corresponding ICES estimates for the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) reference points for fishing mortality and spawning stock biomass, where available. The determination of which stocks to include in the indicator was made based on the value of stocks landed by Scottish vessels by value in 2020, as listed in Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics (Table 5) for 2020.

Update Frequency: Annual

Further Information: Sustainability of fish stocks indicator information is available on the National Performance Framework website.