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 reduce the level of plastic pollution in rivers and canals.

The Environment Agency (EA) regulates the management of waste plastics, including waste treatment, exports and recovery. The producer responsibility regime requires producers of plastic packaging to ensure it is recovered.

The EA is currently working with the water industry through the price review process to investigate the sources and types of microplastics entering the environment via sewage and sewage sludge. This will feed into future planning and the potential for plastic capture technology at water company assets.

The EA is investigating additional regulation of plastics from production to disposal, and enhanced monitoring and analysis to provide better evidence on how plastics enter and affect the land and water environment.

The EA recently announced £750,000 for a new, dedicated team to tackle plastics pollution in the South West of England. The team aims to reduce plastic pollution across land, rivers and the coastline. It will promote better environmental practices across industry, including a reduction in plastic waste from manufacturing and community campaigns to clean up pollution locally.