Plastic-free Packaging (Fruit and Vegetables)

Graham Stringer Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered e-petition 222715 relating to plastic-free packaging for fruit and vegetables.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. It is an honour to open this debate on an important matter, in which I have taken a great deal of interest during my time in this House, particularly as chairman of the protect our waves all-party parliamentary group. I thank the petitioner Edmund Pendrous and the more than 120,000 people who signed this e-petition. The e-petition states:

“In response to the problem of an ever-increasing amount of plastic waste polluting our environment, we need to make supermarkets offer an option of no packaging or eco-friendly packaging for each item of fresh fruit and vegetables they sell.”

There is no doubt that plastic pollution is one of the biggest global environmental challenges of our time. As I am sure we are all aware, in recent times the issue has attracted a great deal of public awareness and increased concern about the damage we are doing to our environment through the amount of plastic waste that we are creating.

It is little wonder that plastic has become so popular: it is lightweight, versatile, moisture-resistant, durable and cheap to produce. Those benefits mean that Britain is not alone in developing a strong appetite for plastic goods. Annual global plastic production has soared in the past 60 years. In 1950, the world’s population produced about 1.5 million tonnes of plastic; by 2016, global production of plastic had risen to 335 million tonnes, with 60 million tonnes produced in Europe alone. The rapid rise in production and subsequent disposal of plastics have brought devastating consequences to all aspects of the environment, particularly to our marine life.

The majority of single-use plastics, which include non-recyclable and non-biodegradable plastic packaging found in shops and supermarkets, are disposed of within minutes of being used. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. Every piece of plastic can take decades or longer to degrade, and will simply break down into smaller and smaller particles. We then find plastic entering the ecosystem, where it has the potential to kill seabirds, fish and animals through ingestion, releasing harmful toxins as the plastic breaks up. Larger pieces of plastic can be a threat to the life of marine mammals and seabirds. It is estimated that there are now around 5 trillion macro and micro plastic pieces floating in our ocean, with a weight of over 250,000 tonnes.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who is making excellent points about this excellent e-petition. Does he agree that any responsible Government would not export any used plastic for recycling? There is credible evidence that even when plastic is certificated in other countries as having been properly disposed of, it actually ends up in rivers and oceans. We should stop such exports.

[Steve Double]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, which is directly related to the subject. As a country, we must ensure that when our residents do the responsible thing and recycle their plastic items, we do all we can to ensure that those items are actually recycled. There are disturbing reports that that may not always be happening. I believe that we—the country and the Government—have a responsibility to do all we can to ensure that it is.

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Double]

I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. She has stolen my point. I was going to praise Surfers Against Sewage, with which we both work very closely, for the significant role it has played not only in advancing a plastic-free Parliament, but in mobilising people across the country. It clears up plastic in our seas and on our beaches, raises public awareness and provides education in schools to drive home the message that we cannot continue to use and dispose of plastic as we have done in recent decades. I join the hon. Lady in congratulating Surfers Against Sewage for its excellent work.

[Graham Stringer]

The hon. Gentleman is being very generous in giving way. May I make the blindingly obvious point that we could immediately get rid of disposable plastic cups? It is a slight embarrassment in a debate like this that most of us are drinking out of them.

[Steve Double]

I think the one that the hon. Gentleman is holding up is biodegradable. There has been a commitment to use up the current stock of single-use plastic items and replace them with biodegradable ones. That is part of the single-use, plastic-free measures.

Oral Answers to Questions

Graham Stringer Excerpts

Thursday 18th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

Disposable nappies have become a consumer convenience. I am very pleased that Procter & Gamble has invested in technology, which we see in Italy. We are encouraging it to bring it here, not only for disposable nappies but other forms of absorbent hygiene products. We can do something about this, but I am not convinced that we will be seeing an end to the disposable nappy any time soon.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

One of the barriers to the successful recycling of plastic is that many simple packaging materials are actually made up of composite plastic with a number of polymers, which is particularly difficult to recycle. Will the Minister consider bringing in regulations to simplify this packaging?

[Dr Coffey]

I am pleased to say that the Government have been working with a mixture of organisations, retailers and manufacturers to try to simplify the polymers that are being used. Technical innovations will need to happen, but I am confident that some good news will be coming out very shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Graham Stringer Excerpts

Thursday 12th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful for my right hon. Friend’s comments. He is absolutely right; Julian Glover is an outstanding individual who I know will conduct a superb piece of work, which we expect to publish in the latter half of next year. My right hon. Friend is also right to say that the reason our national parks are so successful is that they are not museums; they are active, working places, and individuals make sure that they are places of beauty that draw so many visitors, but are also places of food production and economic activity.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

T5. A recent paper by the International Solid Waste Association has shown that much of the plastic we declare as recycled, when it is exported to China and other Asian countries, ends up in rivers and accounts for at least 25% of the plastic pollution going into the seas. Is the Secretary of State aware of that, and what action does he intend to take to improve the situation?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

The Environment Agency is the regulator in this regard, and operators are bound to ensure that what is exported gets recycled appropriately. I have not looked at that report yet, but I am happy to look into this and write to the hon. Gentleman.

Seagulls

Graham Stringer Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Westminster Hall

[Oliver Colvile]

My right hon. Friend is quite right. I very much hope that that will be included in the Brexit Bill when it comes forward, so that we can protect our wildlife and, I hope, improve upon it, because that is important.

Back in September, my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) tabled a question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asking whether it had made an assessment of the potential effect of removing the protected status of seagulls in urban areas.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this important debate. There is not only a contradiction between the lack of protection for hedgehogs and the protection for aggressive seagulls. Governments of all colours in the past have agreed to onshore and offshore wind farms, which randomly kill many seabirds. Does he agree that there is a huge contradiction between seagulls being protected, when we could save people from attack, and killing them randomly with wind farms?

Flooding

Graham Stringer Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The resilience review will look at a number of issues: first, the flood defence formula and how the allocation is made; and, secondly, how we respond and predict these extreme weather events. The reality is that we will do all we can to minimise flood risk but we cannot eliminate it altogether and that is why we need to build resilience, too.

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

Manchester City Council and Salford City Council responded to the flooding of the Rivers Irwell and Irk and the businesses affected by that. Those businesses need not only finance but business support and information. Salford City Council, with the councils for Broughton, and charities such as Helping Hands, responded to the River Irwell overflowing in Broughton, causing damage to up to 800 properties. Can the Secretary of State assure those councils and the House that the funding that is being made available will go beyond the Bellwin formula and allow money to be given to the charities that have spent their money and the local authorities that are already financially hard-pressed?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. The Minister responsible in the Department for Communities and Local Government will look at that specific issue.