LITTER is one of the issues every politician at every level hears complaints about from constituents. Untidy streets, overflowing bins, cans in the countryside and, for those of us lucky to represent coastal areas, plastic waste on our beaches and in the sea.

Some of litter such as chewing gum and cigarette butts is hard to tackle but some is easy to make an impact on through in initiatives such as the carrier bag charge we introduced in October 2014.

The reason is simple. In a throwaway society, the one thing people don’t like to throw away is money. That’s why showing that something has monetary value works. Why chuck away cans and bottles if you can have money back?

If you don’t have the time to return them there will be someone else who will be more than happy to do so. I remember collecting bottles and returning them to the local shop for cash. I have met Australian campaigners for deposit return who have used our research to bring their ministers on side.

They told me that, in South Australia, 20 per cent of all the returned cans and bottles are given to the Scout movement to fund subsidised memberships, camps and equipment. Every year, in just one state, the Scouts receive $2.8 million from the public via this system.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit countries where the public take such initiatives for granted and wouldn’t dream of turning the clock back.

In Sweden I was told how their well-established system has helped tackle litter as well as boost recycling. In Quebec I met supermarket customers who told me how some people collect empty bottles and cans to generate extra income.

More than one-quarter of a billion people already live in places that use deposit return systems for cans and bottles. Lithuania has just adopted this approach and New South Wales will do so next year, with Valencia to follow. These systems see return rates of around 95 per cent in places such as Norway, Germany and Michigan. I appreciate there are hurdles to overcome such as putting in place the necessary infrastructure and setting up a new agency to run the system, as well as opposition from some in the business community.

But many Scottish businesses see the benefits such as increased footfall in their shops and the elimination of trade-waste costs. Many of our brewers, distillers and manufacturers already sell successfully into markets that use deposit return.

I remember retailers, big manufacturers and some politicians expressing concern over the charge I introduced on single-use plastic bags. This month marks its second anniversary. All four nations in the UK have levies in place and no-one wants to go back to how it was before.

There are 650 million fewer single-use plastic bags each year circulating in our society, caught in bushes, polluting our beaches or harming our wildlife.

Consumer behaviour has changed too, and people think more about how reusing bags means a better environment for them to live in.

As for the drinks companies worried about the costs of introducing deposit and return, most are multinational companies that work with such systems in dozens of markets around the world. I asked one major drinks company if its profits had suffered as a result and it accepted they hadn’t. The Zero Waste Scotland study I commissioned showed that local authorities could save £13m a year in litter and waste costs if we introduced deposits. Scotland should lead the UK in this.

Deposit return is the next step to a zero-waste society. It can make a big difference to recycling and to cleaning up our otherwise beautiful country.

In time, we should also consider a charge for single-use coffee cups and, following the example set by France in banning plastic plates and cutlery, think about adopting that too.

In Scotland we have our own unique challenges and will have to design systems suited to our own circumstances.

We will have to work with social enterprises that collect some cans and with local authorities so that deposits will fit well with kerbside collection.

But I firmly believe that, in a few years, we’ll look back and take pride in the new jobs we will have created in the circular economy, pride in our cleaner communities and pride in much higher recycling rates.

Richard Lochhead, SNP MSP for Moray, was Cabinet Secretary for the Environment between 2007 and 2016.