Plastics: Recycling

(asked on 28th January 2021) - View Source

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 encourage research into new methods to recycle plastics.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 5th February 2021

The Government has put together a package of over £100 million for research and innovation to tackle the issues that arise from plastic waste. £38 million has been set aside through the Plastics Research and Innovation Fund and Resource Action Fund for research and development, including £10 million specifically to pioneer innovative approaches to boosting recycling and reducing litter. The Government has also announced £60 million of funding through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, alongside a £150 million investment from industry, towards the development of smart, sustainable plastic packaging, which will aim to make the UK a world-leader in sustainable packaging for consumer products. Through public-private finance initiatives, the Government is already investing around £2.9 billion to support local infrastructure for waste collection and recycling.

In addition, under Defra Resources and Waste guidance, the recent UKRI SPF2 (Strategic Priority Funding) stream has allocated £3.5 million to leading UK academics to develop advanced techniques that will drive circularity in the plastics sector.

In our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to taking actions which will help stimulate private investment in reprocessing and recycling infrastructure as this will help to meet the target of 65% of household waste and waste produced by businesses that is similar to household waste to be recycled by 2035. The major waste reforms of a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers (DRS), Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and consistency in recycling which are being legislated for in the Environment Bill, together with HM Treasury's Plastic Packaging Tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content, will increase demand for secondary material plastic and therefore increase the need for research into recycling infrastructure.

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