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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what position the UK will take on (a) chemical recycling and (b) a mass balance approach in negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty.

At the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop a new UN Plastics Treaty, the UK will align with our domestic policy on any provisions related to chemical recycling, including mass balance.

Therefore, where relevant we will recognise that chemical recycling technologies can offer a complementary route to support the transition towards a circular economy, where mechanical recycling is unfeasible or uneconomic and where this waste may otherwise be incinerated.

There are no proposals in the Treaty on the mass balance approach. Through their recent consultation response following Autumn Budget, His Majesty’s Treasury confirmed acceptance of using a mass balance approach to calculate chemically recycled content in plastic packaging for the purposes of the Plastic Packaging Tax in the UK.