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 with (a) local authorities and (b) businesses to help reduce plastic waste.

The Government is committed to moving to a circular economy. As a part of this transition, managing and reducing plastic waste and following the principles of the waste hierarchy – reduce, reuse, recycle – will be crucial.

Defra engages with and supports industry through the UK Plastics Pact to tackle plastic waste and pollution. The pact's membership represents two-thirds of all consumer packaging in the UK. Members have reduced their problematic and unnecessary plastic items by 84% since 2018.

On 24 October 2024, the Government laid the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 in Parliament. This statutory instrument shifts the costs of managing household packaging waste (including plastic packaging waste) from taxpayers and local authorities to those businesses who use and supply the packaging. This policy will generate over £1 billion annually to support local authority waste and recycling collection and disposal services – benefiting every household in the UK.