Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Wednesday 18th May 2022 Ministerial Corrections

Plastic Waste

The following is an extract from Environment, Food and Rural Affairs oral questions on 28 April 2022.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Recycling plastics is energy and emission-intensive, so would we not be better to end the use of plastic bottles and concentrate on the deposit and return of glass ones?

[Jo Churchill]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question, but actually it is about the use of the appropriate material for the appropriate product. Plastic is a good product when used sensibly and when it can be recycled, and we often now see 100% recycled plastic. We are introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers so that consumers can easily recycle them. News of that and work on it will be coming forward shortly, to be delivered in 2025.

[Official Report, 28 April 2022, Vol. 712, c. 855.]

Letter of correction from the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill).

An error has been identified in my response to my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne).

The correct response should have been:

[Jo Churchill]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question, but actually it is about the use of the appropriate material for the appropriate product. Plastic is a good product when used sensibly and when it can be recycled, and we often now see 100% recycled plastic. We are introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers so that consumers can easily recycle them. News of that and work on it will be coming forward shortly.