Scots are being urged to make fundamental lifestyle changes after a new study showed very few things are being recycled.
A new study commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland called for business models to shift away from selling to more leasing of goods - from cars and furniture to household appliances.
It also suggested shorter journeys for leisure and more home-working, while buying fewer clothes and keeping them longer.
For industry, the Scottish Government agency proposes a fundamental rethink of the way products are designed in this country and around the world.
The BBC says the Zero Waste Scotland report found Scots recycle or find a new use for only 1.3% of the resources that came into the economy in 2018.
The global average for reusing resources and circulating them round a "circular economy" is six times higher than the Scottish figure.
Least circular reuse of resources
While this calculation has only been used on a handful of countries, Scotland came out as having the least circular reuse of resources, even compared with similar European countries.
Scotland's use of resources totals 22 tonnes per head, while the worldwide average figure is 12 tonnes.
Another way of accounting for Scotland's resource use is its carbon footprint.That comes to 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide per head in Scotland, compared with 5.5 tonnes globally.
Several options for going further and meeting the challenge on a bigger scale are put forward in the report, including:
- A circular food system - in which there is less waste from buying too much, and waste food is processed for energy: less eating of meat, and more use of seasonal and local food production.
- Circular manufacturing - in which goods use fewer raw materials, and are designed to be used for longer, to be dismantled and more easily mended, and given a new purpose or broken up for recycling.
- The transport sector shifting to renewable energy in lighter vehicles; more car sharing; flexible home-working; and fewer unnecessary journeys.
- A more circular lifestyle would see people reusing, repairing and donating; reduced demand for home appliances; leasing instead of owning and using sharing libraries; more local travel and leisure; and reduced use of paper.
- Buying goods made closer to home, while making domestic manufacturing more efficient.
- Improved reuse of equipment reaching the end of its life, particularly in the offshore energy sector.
- More effort to make homes energy efficient, reusing building materials and sourcing closer to home. Better use of buildings, with fewer vacancies and second homes.
The consultancy which drew up the report has calculated following such ideas could raise the extent of Scotland's circularity nine-fold - from 1.3% to 11.8% of resources.