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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to reduce the amount of waste generated in the UK to landfill in (a) the UK and (b) other countries.

We committed in the Net Zero Strategy to explore policies to work towards eliminating all biodegradable waste to landfill by 2028. Our ambitious Resources and Waste Strategy set a target of less than 10% of municipal residual waste to landfill by 2035.

We are making good progress with these commitments with a substantial decrease in the amount of local authority managed waste sent to landfill from 79% in 2000/01 to 8% in 2020/21.

It is generally illegal to export waste from the UK for disposal, including for disposal in landfill. We do, however, recognise the difficulties that some countries have in dealing with plastic waste, and so we have committed to banning the export of this waste to countries which are not members of the OECD. We will consult this year on options to deliver this ban.

Waste is a devolved matter and Defra has responsibility for waste management in England only.