Plastic-free Packaging (Fruit and Vegetables)

Mark Pawsey Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[John Mc Nally]

Again, the hon. Gentleman makes good points. I assure him that we on the Environmental Audit Committee were warned about becoming the dirty man of Europe once again, and I hope that we will be given a reassurance today that we will not go down that path. I share the hon. Gentleman’s anxieties. We are at a pivotal moment when we can change these things, and the world is with us—probably through the work of the great David Attenborough, who has beautifully highlighted all the problems. I ask the Minister to reassure us that all retailers, rather than just a select few, will be charged accordingly, as happens in all the other home nations.

In 2017, the Scottish Government launched an initiative to develop a fit-for-purpose deposit return scheme to tackle everyday waste problems, such as single-use plastic and single-use items that are disposed of. I praise the UK Government for attending the summit in London in July this year, organised by the Scottish Government, to discuss how the home nations can co-operate to develop deposit return schemes that are fit for purpose, and nudge everyone into better habits when disposing of plastic and single-use items.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

I apologise for arriving late to the debate. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the deposit return scheme involves substantial investment in reverse vending machines, costing upwards of £10,000, £15,000 or even £20,000, and that we would be better off spending that money on improving our recycling infrastructure to get more products recycled, which is what we all want?

[John Mc Nally]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, and there are two sides to the argument. We have to start somewhere—that is a certainty—and the way we are recycling at the moment is not the best way, which is a point that I hope to touch on later. I know that deposit retail schemes involve some complicated systems, but there may be ways to make them commercially viable that would get more people involved.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sandy Martin (Ipswich) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) on leading an excellent debate and bringing it to the Chamber today. As he says, pollution from plastics is one of the biggest global pollution issues of our time. Although Britain is not alone in producing and using plastics, I believe that this country can and should be a beacon of good practice. What we in the developed world do will have real influence on what happens in the rest of the world.

The hon. Gentleman took an intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer) on having proper checks on our plastics exports, and I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s commitment in respect of alternatives for packaging and reductions in the amount of packaging. In particular, I welcome his support for the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) and the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made on education and simplifying packaging, so that we can maximise recycling.

I also welcome the speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq). We are all well aware of the news that has come out about plastic contamination of tap water. Alongside our worries about the natural world, public health worries are at the forefront of public concern about plastic pollution. It is leading to a real public move towards doing something about the scourge. I reiterate what my hon. Friend said about Camden Council’s recycling rewards scheme. Will the Government investigate using national financial incentives to roll out best practice across local authorities? Whatever we do about recycling and waste minimisation, it has to be done with central Government working in conjunction with local authorities. Whatever we do must be founded on knowledge and a scientific appreciation of what happens to different types of plastic. We need the Government to take a lead on that.

The hon. Member for Henley (John Howell) mentioned cucumbers. I must admit that at first I assumed that he was saying that cucumbers do not need to be wrapped at all. I have a greengrocer just across the road from me in my constituency; none of its cucumbers are wrapped, and I have never seen a rotten cucumber there. The hon. Gentleman may well be right that cucumbers last a bit longer when they are wrapped up, but plenty of fruit and vegetables do not last longer wrapped. I have always thought that bananas come in the perfect natural wrapping and really do not need additional wrapping, and I suspect that in many other cases wrapping contributes nothing to the fruit or vegetable’s keeping.

[Mark Pawsey]

In fact, cucumbers are probably an example of the most effective use of polythene wrap. It is a tiny amount of packaging, but it can prolong the life of a cucumber by up to 10 days. The hon. Gentleman says that he has not seen cucumbers in plastic wrapping, but he will almost certainly have seen significant amounts of food waste where fruit and vegetables that are not appropriately wrapped are allowed to rot.

[Sandy Martin]

I think the hon. Gentleman misunderstood me. I said that I had not seen cucumbers wrapped in plastic at my local greengrocer; obviously in supermarkets they are. My suspicion is that that is because the cucumbers in my local greengrocer never stay there for more than a day, as he only gets in as many as he is going to sell.

[Sandy Martin]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that. I have actually seen bananas growing in their natural habitat; not only that, but I helped plant them out, maintained irrigation systems and chopped the plants down at the end of the year when they were finished and the new sprouting plant needed to grow up. I have eaten bananas fresh off the plant, as well. That was in the 1970s, and I have to say that the bananas were not wrapped up in blue plastic and did not seem to suffer much as a result. I very much agree, however, that we need more research into what does and does not work and how we can ensure that best practice is used to reduce waste, not only of plastic but of the thing being wrapped.

The world faces a pollution crisis from plastics. Some 400 million tonnes of plastic will be produced this year; as we have heard, it is estimated that 12 million tonnes of that will end up in the ocean, and the problem continues to grow. Pollution is not the only problem; the use of plastics contributes to climate change, as most plastics are made from fossil fuels. Approximately 6% of global oil production is used for making plastics, and that figure will grow. The Chinese plan to increase their use of coal as the main feedstock for plastics, and the US has extensive plans to increase the use of shale gas extracted by fracking for making plastics. According to DEFRA’s modelling, in 2017 the UK’s 42 incinerators released a combined total of nearly 5 million tonnes of CO₂ from the incineration of fossil-based materials, predominantly plastics. Even if the incinerator generates electricity, burning plastic in an incinerator produces around 2.5 times less useful energy output for that CO₂ than would have been obtained from the direct use of the original fossil fuel as fuel.

Public awareness of the issue is strong. I urge the Minister to consider that the time for action is now. The Government could make a regulation now that met the demands of the petition, which has about 125,000 signatures. A further petition organised by Friends of the Earth calling for Government action on plastics pollution now has 187,000 signatures. Any action must deal with the actual problems. If we are to have effective action, we need to understand what the problems are.

In response to the petition, the Government say:

“Packaging has an important and positive role to play in reducing product damage, increasing shelf-life, and reducing food waste.”

However, plastic packaging on fresh fruit and vegetables may contribute to food waste: by offering a fixed packaged quantity, people may be induced to buy more than they need, as the hon. Member for Henley mentioned. Also, the amount of waste may be disguised. Rather than damaged food being thrown away by the supermarket, the customer may well find damaged fruit or vegetables inside the plastic packaging and then throw them away in the household. Also, I question whether most fresh fruit and vegetables are given an enhanced shelf life by being wrapped in plastic.

Even when fruit and vegetables are offered loose to the general public, often the only way of taking them to the checkout is in plastic bags because no paper bags are provided. I support the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), who is no longer in her place. Providing paper bags for people to choose to use if they want to avoid using plastic is something that every supermarket could do. I am glad to hear that Morrisons is doing just that.

The Government have promised,

“a four point plan taking action at each stage of the product lifecycle—production, consumption and end of life.”

However, recycling is only a part of any solution to the problem of plastic. Eunomia, working for Friends of the Earth, estimated that only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. The Guardian has published estimates that about 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste each year emanates from supermarkets, so our No. 1 priority must be to reduce the amount of plastic used in the first place. The best way to start is to identify applications that are unnecessary, and I suggest that wrapping fresh fruit and vegetables in plastic is one such application.

Local Government Association analysis published on 4 August 2018 suggests that only a third of plastic used by households is capable of being recycled. Most waste collection and sorting systems are unable to deal with film and bags, which are the main plastic items associated with the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables, so the expectation is that almost none of the plastics that the petition addresses are recyclable. The answer, surely, is to prevent them from being used in the first place.

What do the Government intend to do? Labour will support actions that reduce harmful pollution from plastics, but I am not clear that the Government know what those actions might be. Will a tax on packaging with less than 30% recycled material actually reduce the amount of plastic getting into the environment? I am not sure. We have still to see the details. Whatever the Government do, they need to act before 2022, when the proposed “30% or less” tax would be implemented, if they are to meet their stated aim to recycle 70% by 2025 and eliminate plastic by 2042.

The Government also talk about encouraging voluntary selective plastic-free aisles in a small number of supermarkets. Of course that would be a good step forward, but it is not enough. When The Guardian surveyed the major supermarkets, none was willing to commit to setting up plastic-free aisles, despite the Prime Minister’s optimism last week, and only two supermarkets—Aldi and the Co-op—were open about the amount of plastic packaging that they put on to the market.

[Mark Pawsey]

The hon. Gentleman has already talked about the large number of people who are concerned about the plastic used in supermarkets, but supermarkets do what their customers want. Why does he think supermarkets have used plastic packaging as they have?

[Sandy Martin]

I do not agree that supermarkets do what customers want. They do whatever will induce the customer to purchase the majority of their food at the supermarket. Plastic is not necessarily what people want if they are given a choice, but very often, as has been said, customers in a supermarket do not have a choice, so we cannot say that the supermarket is doing what the customer wants. Clearly, if customers do not have a choice, they take what the supermarket offers them. For instance, when I go into a supermarket to buy some of my fruit and vegetables, I normally do not have a choice as to what bag to put them into. I do not put loose tomatoes into a supermarket shopping trolley; if I had a paper bag to put them in, I would put them into that, but if there is only a plastic bag, perforce I have to put them into that.

[Mark Pawsey]

Would the paper bag provide the protection for the tomatoes that the plastic tray with the cellophane wrap provides?

[Sandy Martin]

I do not believe that tomatoes need that level of protection. If one treats them carefully, as I always do when I am in a supermarket, I put them into a bag, and there is no way that a paper bag would provide less protection than a plastic bag. However, the paper bag is compostable and the plastic bag is not.

We need the forthcoming environment Bill, promised by the Prime Minister in July this year, to contain clear actions for dealing with plastics based on comprehensive knowledge of current problems and science-based understanding of the impacts. We are waiting to hear what the Government propose to do to ensure that the environment Bill contains effective measures to combat plastics pollution.

Too often we have seen half-hearted and piecemeal gimmicks from the Government. What is needed is wholesale, systemic change. In the meantime, I urge the Minister to take the petition seriously and to consider whether a mandatory requirement for fresh fruit and vegetables to be made available without plastic packaging would be desirable and possible.

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) for presenting the debate. I repeat his congratulations to Edmund Pendrous on tabling the petition. I welcome the hon. Member for Ipswich (Sandy Martin) to his place. I believe it is his first contribution to a debate from the Front Bench. I am sure he will continue speaking in that role for some time on a variety of topics in which I know he has a particular interest.

I tend to respond by outlining the steps the Government are taking on the issues raised, but I am conscious that Members have talked today about a much wider variety of matters than were raised in the petition. The important issue of plastic waste is recognised by people across the country and around the world, so we in government will continue to do whatever we can to reduce avoidable waste and plastic pollution. I am confident that the Government will do many things, although I might have to disappoint some Members today because some of those things will emerge from the resources and waste strategy, which we intend to publish soon.

The Government share Members’ concerns. In answer to the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq), we set out in the 25-year environment plan our ambition to achieve zero avoidable plastic waste. That does not mean that everything waits until 2042—she will be aware of some of the actions that we are already taking on microbeads. The hon. Member for Falkirk (John Mc Nally) is right that it was the Welsh Government who initiated the concept of a levy on plastic bags, which we then adopted in 2015, and there has been a huge response to that around the country. We are undertaking other activities that might be small steps in the minds of some people, but are important in sending a clear leadership message, which is having an impact not only in this country but in other parts of the world.

The UK uses about 5 million tonnes of plastic every year, half of which is packaging, and demand for the material continues to rise. We particularly want to reduce demand for single-use plastic items, promote better use of materials in circulation, and increase the volume of plastic sent for recycling.

As I indicated, we have introduced certain measures already. We are looking at the deposit return scheme, which the hon. Member for Falkirk referred to. He is aware that the four nations are discussing that matter. From a consumer and industrial perspective, it would make sense to agree one scheme, but we do not want to hold up other nations that consider themselves more advanced in developing the scheme. I am having a meeting next week with Ministers from Wales and Scotland and with officials from Northern Ireland to see how far we can progress that. We recently launched a consultation on plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. We know that industry has responded well already, but going further will eliminate the availability of such items. However, we have some exemptions with regard to disability issues and a specific issue regarding the Home Office.

My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay referred to the important measure announced in the Budget to introduce a specific tax for products containing less than 30% recycled plastic, if companies come forward in future with such products. That will stimulate a market for recycled plastics. At the moment, we are talking about two kinds of plastic that have a market in this country. Of course, plastics can be sold abroad, and we take advantage of such opportunities. Some of those markets are closing in terms of quality—probably the most prominent example is China—but other countries want our plastic to create packaging, which they often then use to send products to this country.

The timeframe that we give to manufacturers to make the adjustment and to do the research and innovation so that they can switch is important. At the moment, a good example is the classic plastic milk bottle, which has been carefully designed to try to reduce the amount of plastic and the amount of carbon generated as a result. However, owing to food safety issues it needs to have a certain kind of virgin plastic in order to prevent leaching of plastic into the milk. There are certainly areas where research and innovation are required, as has been said multiple times by hon. Members. That is why we have already announced the £20-million plastics research and innovation fund, to which we have added a further £20 million—£10 million specifically for research and development, and £10 million for getting better at ensuring that plastic that is used is recycled in a variety of ways.

Reference was made to products such as plastic cups, and the topic of biodegradable plastics came up a few times. We need to be careful about compostable and biodegradable material and ensure that any future infrastructure will be able to deal with such material appropriately, because at the moment the majority of infrastructure in this country is not set up to deal with it. Certainly people cannot just put anything that markets itself as compostable into the compost tips in their gardens; it needs to be processed in a particular way, on an industrial scale.

It is a bit like some of the challenges that some coffee cup retailers have been experiencing. At the moment, a plastic liner remains an element. It is possible to recycle those products, and there are about four of five places in the country that do it; the challenge is how we get the cups back to those recycling places. Of course, for other sorts of cartons there is really only one place in the country where recycling can be done. So far, councils seem to have been a lot more effective at using household recycling to get those products there.

[Mark Pawsey]

Does the Minister agree that were a manufacturer to place on the market a material that is incredibly low cost in use and capable of being coloured in a variety of colours, manipulated into all sorts of shapes, and recycled, we would hail it as a wonder material, rather than denigrating it, as has seemed to be the case in much of this afternoon’s debate?

[Dr Coffey]

I know my hon. Friend feels passionately about this subject. It is important not to demonise plastic entirely, but we need to consider taking the holistic approach to the environment to which hon. Members have referred. I understand what he says, but at the moment there is not a huge market for some of the products that are technically recyclable. That is what we are trying to change and to stimulate.

I have already referred to the tax that was announced in the Budget. We also intend to reform the packaging producer responsibility system, which will increase producer responsibility for the cost of all their packaging waste, including plastic. The system will provide an incentive for producers to design packaging that is easier to recycle and will penalise the use of difficult-to-recycle packaging.

Recognising the global challenge, the Prime Minister announced an unprecedented package earlier this year at the Commonwealth summit. We have come together with other Commonwealth nations to establish the Blue Charter, and the United Kingdom and Vanuatu are co-chairing the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance. About £66 million of UK aid has been made available to boost global research and to help countries across the Commonwealth to stop plastic entering the oceans, which was one of the key motivations behind today’s petition.

As part of the package of support, this September we launched the Global Plastics Action Partnership alongside the Canadian Government to help to deliver on those goals. The partnership will bring businesses, Governments and other organisations together to develop country action plans to address the plastics problem. Companies such as Coca Cola, PepsiCo and the Dow Chemical Company are already supporting it, and several others are in discussions. We have invested £2.4 million in that initiative alone; the funding has been matched by the Canadian Government, and we believe that further commercial partners will come on board.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) said, one of the challenges of plastics occurs when they leak out of the system. Addressing the problem is not solely about eradication; it is clearly also a question of management. However, we need a shift in how we think about how to reduce avoidable waste. One of the things that has been said today is how much consumers need to change their behaviour. I agree that we need to get consumers themselves to consider changing their behaviour, but we know that retailers are a key way of getting them to do that, as are manufacturers.

The convenience of getting all of one’s shopping in the same place has been a big driver for supermarket shopping, as opposed to visiting a local greengrocer or going to the market, so we want retailers to act responsibly. We are working with them and the Waste and Resources Action Programme, WRAP, to encourage efforts to reduce waste and to explore the introduction of plastic-free supermarket initiatives in which food is loose, giving consumers the choice.

WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched their plastics pact with support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and 80 businesses, including some non-governmental organisations and service providers. The pact aims to make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Participants will also work together to recycle or compost 70% of plastic packaging, while striving to eliminate single-use plastics. A week or so ago, we also supported the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new plastics economy global commitment. We are one of just a handful of Governments that have signed up to that. It is important to lead by example and support such important global initiatives.

Returning to the debate about wrapping cucumbers or cauliflowers in plastic, such practices are an important part of innovation with regard to increasing shelf life and reducing food waste. I understand that the hon. Member for Ipswich is a bit sceptical about balancing the two, but keeping food fresher for longer through innovations such as vacuum packing and resealable packs has a significant impact on extending the life of many products and reducing waste. If a product is wasted due to insufficient packaging, the costs of disposal can often have a greater environmental impact than the packaging itself. We need to strike the delicate balance between the two. Food waste in itself is a huge environmental and financial issue. It is suggested that more than 10 million tonnes of food and drink waste arise annually in the UK after the farm gate.

We are taking a comprehensive approach to tackle the problem. With WRAP we launched the Courtauld commitment 2025 in March 2016. That brings together organisations right across the food system—from producers to consumers—to try to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable. However, there may be opportunities where offering food loose may help to reduce plastic waste while not affecting shelf life. That is why we have worked with WRAP and retailers to explore the potential for introducing plastic-free initiatives. WRAP will publish a technical report on the evidence for providing fresh produce loose, and what the differences are.

Many examples have been referred to, and the cucumber is probably the classic one. My hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) might have been thinking of the Henley royal regatta and the many cucumber sandwiches that are consumed on those days. He will perhaps need to talk to his local food providers, because if people know that they will get through a large number of cucumbers in one or two days, clearly plastic wrapping is not required. I appreciate that the cucumbers might get a bit bruised, but I think they are reasonably hardy.

The cucumber is probably the best example, which is why it is used so often. Instead of the shelf life being two to three days, it is extended to 12 to 15 days with packaging. Without revealing every element of the WRAP technical report, which is due to be published soon, the evidence suggests that there are other products where there is a real environmental improvement to be had from packaging. Those include soft fruits, cherries, berries, raspberries, salad leaves—the bags of salad that regularly get used when people do not feel that they have the time to deal with all that—herbs, grapes, spinach and cabbage. I have not found out about cauliflower, but I will, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay will read the report carefully. WRAP suggests that with those products, there is real evidence that packaging matters in extending the shelf life. The report indicates that there are some other products where it does not particularly make a big difference—carrots are an example.

[Phil Wilson in the Chair]

This comes back to consumer choice. I think that people have got used to picking up elements of this, and I am pleased to see that there have been initiatives; I have certainly noticed them in my local shopping experience. We are seeing a change, and the decision is now being given back to consumers for them to make a positive choice about, for example, using paper bags or collecting stuff loose, and whether produce can be conveniently grouped together—a bunch of bananas is probably the best example of that, as compared with trying to pick up six peaches.

One thing that I hope that the report will be useful in doing—we hope WRAP will publish this by the end of the month—is a bit of consultation, which will give both retailers and manufacturers an opportunity to consider the best way to take this forward, particularly with signatories to the Courtauld commitment and the UK plastics pact. Further to that, we are working with Morrisons to evaluate its current trial of selling uncut, fresh produce plastic-free or loose. The project will provide an independent, evidence-based appraisal of a plastic-free initiative and explore the effects on food waste of reducing plastic packaging. This will inform further retailer and supplier action under the Courtauld commitment and the plastics pact.

The hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn referred to a Budgens branch in Belsize Park, which I believe is a franchise run by Mr Andrew Thornton. Understandably, he recently received some good publicity for his commitment to try to reduce plastic packaging at Budgens and at his other store in Crouch End. There may be other suppliers available, but I want to flag this as a good, local example. I think that they are trying to do something that, as has already been alluded to, people see in their local greengrocer’s. I am conscious that this is part of his community supermarket idea, which he, as the franchise operator, is bringing in to run under the broader Budgens brand.

Other retailers have made good progress with tackling plastics. Waitrose recently published two reports, one of which, on consumer research, highlighted the increase in customer awareness of plastic pollution. The other report is the Waitrose & Partners plastics plan, which has been published to communicate the company’s commitment to eliminate unnecessary plastic and to explain how they are going about it, whether it is through packaging, products, customer engagement or across the supply chain.

There are opportunities and funding for innovation and redesign, which is important. The United Kingdom has signed up to the circular economy directive, and it is our intention to continue that; I think it is a really important way to proceed. We are ambitious about recycling rates, but many Members will be aware that we are sometimes driven by the weight system instead of by the actual issue, and I expect we will consider that in the future. We are committed to making those changes.

My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay referred repeatedly to how youth have responded to the issue of reducing plastic packaging, and how they want solutions to be provided. I certainly agree with that. Black plastic has been discussed. Black plastic is recyclable, but not all councils have invested through their contracts in facilities that can identify black plastic as it goes through; there is a certain kind of pigment that can be picked out. One thing that we need to consider is how plastic is used in our food chain. There are reasons why black plastic is used. It is not just for image; it has a function, but there may be opportunities to use different things. By the end of the year, I expect retailers and manufacturers to propose a solution to improve the polymers and reduce the number of polymers that are used in a wide variety of products. Again, that is about trying to make it easier to recycle.

I am sure that many of us are lobbied regularly by our constituents about bin collections. We will have more to say on that in the resources and waste strategy, so I will hold off from talking about it further. I have largely managed to cover the points relevant to the petition that were raised today, but I want to say that we are working with the industry, which has committed to implementing solutions. These matters are on track, but there are some difficult challenges to overcome in innovation, particularly in relation to drinks containers. One of the solutions that we have identified will be taken forward through the UK plastics pact and will ensure that all plastic packaging is recyclable by 2025.

I thank again the petitioners who signed this petition and helped us to have this important debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay for opening the debate.