Recycling: Plastic Bottles

Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, I have never taken the noble Lord to be anything other than courteous, and I do not take what he said in any untoward sense. On what he said about the plastic bag charge, there are 6 billion fewer plastic bags in circulation and the 5p charge has raised £29 million for good causes. These are good examples. I am sure that when the litter strategy is launched, as I hope it will be soon, the noble Lord will agree that we are trying to be—and will be—ambitious.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the WRAP board. My noble friend will be aware of WRAP’s consistency framework, which should help drive up recycling rates of not just plastic but other commonly collected waste streams. Although the framework was launched only in September, can my noble friend update the House on how it is going with local authorities?

Food Waste

Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Wednesday 7th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, the results are not published yet but I will look at that third phase. The Courtauld Commitment 2025 is already even more robust, so I am looking for progress and I shall be working with colleagues to ensure that that is the case.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a board member of WRAP. How might the Government’s forthcoming 25-year environment plan and 25-year food and farming plan help to promote further action to reduce food waste?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, my noble friend is right that the 25-year environment plan provides an opportunity. The first phase of that will be public consultation, and I am very much looking forward to observations and so forth. Dealing with the food waste issue must be part of our long-term vision of a better environment.

Landfill: Textile Waste

Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Monday 4th July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to reduce the amount of textile waste sent to landfill.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)]

My Lords, we are working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme—WRAP—and organisations from across the clothing life cycle to reduce of amount of textile waste sent to landfill and minimise environmental impacts. This includes action with designers and manufacturers to increase clothing durability, work to promote greater reuse and recycling of textiles and action to influence consumer behaviour through the Love Your Clothes campaign.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, we can all do more to make our clothes last longer and look at innovative ways to do so. To that end, all noble Lords are invited to a swishing event tomorrow in Committee Room G, 5 pm to 7 pm, hosted by the APPG on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion. I declare an interest as a trustee of WRAP, which leads the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan—SCAP—which is focused on diverting textiles from landfill. Can my noble friend inform the House what progress SCAP is making?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, my noble friend’s initiative sounds very interesting and noble Lords, including those who are not in the Chamber, may well want to go. So far as SCAP is concerned, I am very pleased to say that only last week Primark, one of the UK’s largest clothing retailers, became the latest business to sign up to SCAP. This means that SCAP now represents 65% of clothes sold in the UK by volume. This clearly shows the enormous potential for this agreement.

Marine Litter

Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Thursday 14th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, because this is a serious problem we are working at national level, Ospar level, EU level and international level through the G7 and, as I say, with overseas territories. There is a lot going on.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of WRAP and a borderline obsessive when it comes to litter-picking, especially of plastic off beaches. Can my noble friend tell us how British products compare with those of the rest of the world?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, I think I am permitted to say that Unilever, Boots and Colgate-Palmolive have already phased out microbeads. The L’Oréal group will phase them out by 2017. There is a website which shows which products have microbeads. I very much encourage people to go for the microbead-free products.

Food Supply: Sustainability

Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Monday 14th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, new national standards for agricultural soils under cross-compliance were introduced only on 1 January this year. Clearly, it is essential, if we are to be even more productive, to ensure that our soil is in good heart and that we improve it wherever we can.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend may be aware that, globally, up to one-third of all food produced is wasted. Here in the UK, the equivalent of £60 a month is wasted by individual households. Will my noble friend tell the House what the Government are doing to bring down these figures, both across the supply chain and among retailers and individual householders?