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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to support and promote the recycling of paper.

All local authorities in England currently offer a kerbside collection service for paper and card.

To ensure that we recycle more paper and card, as well as other materials, we are seeking to make recycling easier by ensuring that there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England.

Following support at public consultation, the Environment Act 2021 stipulates that all local authorities, and other waste collectors, in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households, businesses and non-domestic premises (including paper and card). These measures will improve the quality and quantity of materials collected for recycling and increase public confidence in the recycling system.

In 2021 we published a second consultation on consistency recycling collections. This consultation closed on 4 July and sought views on increasing consistency in recycling, including the specific materials that are in scope of collection in the paper and card waste stream. We are currently analysing responses to the consultation and intend to publish our response in due course.