Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2020 to Question 105307 on Symphony Environmental: Plastics, if he will prohibit the description of plastic as compostable if it is the type of plastic required by European Standard EN13432 to convert almost entirely into CO2 and not into compost.

EN 13432:2000 is an industry-derived harmonised EU standard which lays down minimum requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation. It is a standard that has been adopted by national standards bodies in many of the EU Member States. In the UK it is published as BS EN 13432 by the British Standards Institution. Only packaging which has passed relevant tests and assessments can carry the standard. It has not been adopted into UK legislation.

Turning to standards and biodegradability more broadly, we are concerned that, in the absence of robust standards, claims about the biodegradability of plastic-based products cannot be verified leading to potential confusion in the market place, possible increased levels of consumption and potential environmental harm at the point of disposal. Furthermore, concerns persist that plastics which are claimed to be biodegradable, if littered or otherwise released into the environment in an uncontrolled way, may not degrade quickly or at all, and they can only be composted if they meet relevant standards.

As a consequence of these concerns, the Government published a call for evidence in July 2019 to help consider the development of standards or certification criteria for bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics as well as to better understand their effects on the environment and our current waste system. The call for evidence closed on 14 October 2019 and we are grateful for the responses submitted to us by industry and others. We are currently analysing the responses received to inform future policy and will publish a response to the call for evidence by the end of the year.

We appreciate the engagement of industry in the call for evidence and welcome further engagement in future consultations and policy development as our work develops.