Marine Litter

Baroness Parminter Excerpts

Thursday 14th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, I should say first that the marine issue is so important because 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources. My noble friend rightly raises the issue of land-based litter and what we should be doing. We are developing and will be implementing the strategic approach to the problem of litter through our national litter strategy. This will include work dealing with littering from vehicles and we expect to make significant progress on this. I shall certainly keep my noble friend informed.

[Baroness Parminter (LD)]

My Lords, given the contribution of plastic bottles to marine litter, the success of deposit-return schemes around the world and the plastic bag levy here in the UK, what consideration are the Government giving to introducing a bottle deposit-return scheme here?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I would not want to pre-empt anything and I am afraid that I do not know of the final discussions, if any, on this matter within the national litter strategy. However, I will specifically mention that the noble Baroness has raised this at Question Time today.