Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton Buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts

Friday 10th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I strongly support this measure and congratulate the Minister on bring it forward despite Covid, on doing a proper impact assessment and on making provision for medical need. As the House knows, I am a long-term campaigner for reducing the use of plastic because of its growth, its indestructibility and its appalling effect on the environment, wildlife, the oceans and, I fear, human health, as my noble friend Lord McColl suggested. I have two questions. First, there are some amazing steps forward on plastic. A spin-out from Imperial has pioneered an additive that causes plastic film to break down in water. Elsewhere, the pollution of recycling caused by black plastic trays has been solved and there is a way of making disposable coffee cups so that the lining can be removed and the paper recycled. Can my noble friend incorporate these into his strategy? Secondly, there is still not a single and comprehensible system of plastic recycling, neither bins nor product labelling, across Britain’s local authorities. Can my noble friend pluck this low-hanging fruit and bring in a new system now?