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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help replace aluminium and PVC medical blister packs with recyclable polypropylene blister packs.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging is designed to incentivise producers to use packaging that is easier to recycle, including through fee modulation from year two of the scheme.

All medical packaging, including blister packs, must be assessed under the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM), and may incur higher fees if it is less recyclable. However, some medical packaging is subject to regulatory requirements which may limit the use of more recyclable alternatives. Where medical packaging is assessed as ‘red-rated’ according to the RAM, solely because of such regulatory requirements, it may be reported as ‘amber-medical’ for fee modulation purposes.