Environment Bill (Fourteenth sitting)

Anthony Browne Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 14th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 12th November 2020 Public Bill Committees

[Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

There is a specific issue in terms of plastic and why there is a need to focus on it: it is not biodegradable. It stays permanently in the oceans and is often very difficult to recycle. That is why there are so many tonnes of plastic floating around in the oceans, but not tonnes of other materials. We cannot start saying, “We’ve got to clamp down on everything that is single use.”

I suspect that the hon. Lady tends to buy The Guardian, which she uses only once. Would she put a special charge on buying all paper that is single use? Pieces of paper are single use, as are many other products. The trouble is that if we introduce charges on them, we actually discourage companies from moving from something like plastic, which is environmentally damaging, to something that is more sustainable. For example, I am a subscriber to The Times newspaper. It used to come wrapped in single-use plastic, which was terrible. It now comes wrapped in something that is completely bio- degradable, which can be put in the compost. If we introduce charges, we discourage companies from doing stuff that is more environmentally sustainable.

[Ruth Jones]

I am disturbed to hear that the hon. Member does not recycle The Guardian, because that is what we are doing.

[Anthony Browne]

I do. Well, I do not subscribe to The Guardian, but I recycle The Times.

[The Chair]

Order. The hon. Gentleman has had his intervention. He cannot continue to make interventions from a sedentary position.