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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to encourage food manufacturers to produce tea bags without the use of polymers.

There are no specific plans for tea bags.

In December the Secretary of State chaired an industry roundtable on plastics and outlined a four point plan for tackling plastic waste that takes action at each stage of the product lifecycle – production, consumption and end of life: cutting the total amount of plastic in circulation; reducing the number of different plastics in use; improving the rate of recycling; supporting comprehensive recycling collections to make it easier for individuals to recycle.

We set out further steps in our 25 Year Environment Plan, available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673203/25-year-environment-plan.pdf

We will also be conducting a call for evidence this year, seeking views on how taxing and charging the most environmentally damaging single use plastics could help reduce waste.