Plastics: Waste

(asked on 20th February 2019) - 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 the Government is taking to reduce the export of plastic waste to developing countries; and if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of a complete ban on plastic waste exports to developing countries.


Answered by
Thérèse Coffey Portrait
Thérèse Coffey
This question was answered on 28th February 2019

The Government wants to export less waste and make sure the waste we do have to export is handled properly. As set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy, the government is putting in place measures to improve the quality of the materials we collect for recycling as well as creating domestic markets for these materials. The government recently published four consultations which will support these ambitions: consistency in materials collected for recycling, reform of the packaging waste producer responsibility system, a deposit return scheme for drinks containers and a tax to encourage the use of recycled material in plastic packaging. In addition, we will seek to tighten controls on exports of all waste, and are exploring a range of measures including increasing monitoring of international waste shipments, improved provision for waste repatriation, and charging higher fees to improve compliance with waste shipment controls.

While waste is a commodity, and there is a global market for secondary materials, it must be and is subject to strict controls. Under EU legislation non-OECD countries elect the controls to be applied in respect of waste exports to their countries from the EU, choosing either to prohibit specific wastes, require prior written approval, apply their own national procedures or no control measures. The authorities in countries that receive waste from the EU need to be clear about the types of waste they will accept and the waste import procedures they require exporters in the EU to adhere to.

The EU Waste Shipment Regulations impose strict conditions on the types of waste that can be exported, and set out procedures that waste exporters must follow. They prohibit the export from the EU of waste for disposal to a country outside the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). Regulation 21 of the UK Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations makes it an offence to transport waste destined for disposal to countries outside the EFTA.

The UK has a robust approach to enforcing these controls. In 2017 the Environment Agency (EA) inspected more than 1,000 shipping containers and returned 367 of these to their site of loading. The EA stopped over 7,000 tonnes of waste at ports and prevented nearly 9,000 tonnes of waste from reaching ports.

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