Resources and Waste Strategy

Michael Gove Excerpts

Tuesday 18th December 2018 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Michael Gove)]

Today I am publishing the new Resources and Waste Strategy for England.

In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government pledged to leave the environment in a better condition for the next generation. Our ambitious new strategy will help us meet that commitment and sets out how we will eliminate avoidable plastic waste and double resource productivity. We will go further and faster to reduce, reuse and recycle and support the move away from being a ‘throw-away’ society.

Businesses and manufacturers have a key role to play. Our reforms will make certain that both the responsibility for and the cost of recycling or disposal of post-consumer packaging sits fairly and squarely with producers and not taxpayers. The money raised will be used to boost household recycling and make sure that any packaging used is recycled and disposed of properly. This will complement a tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic, announced in the Budget, which will stimulate demand for recycled plastic.

These reforms, and others, will be complemented by improvements to local authority collections systems. Householders want to recycle more, but materials collected for recycling vary from council to council and people are confused. This strategy will tackle this and we will consult shortly on legislating to allow Government to specify a core set of materials to be collected by all local authorities and waste operators at the kerbside, and supporting comprehensive and frequent rubbish and recycling collections.

This strategy sets out robust measures to tackle waste crime and will crackdown on food needlessly going to waste. We will consult on weekly separate food waste collections for every household and mandatory food waste measurement and reporting for businesses, including retailers.

I will place a copy of the new Resources and Waste Strategy in the Libraries of the House.

[HCWS1200]