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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastic; and what initiatives he is rolling out on recycling.

The Government set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, published in January 2018, its commitment to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste and to work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Our Resource and Waste Strategy was published in December 2018 and contains details of measures that will help to achieve this.

We are currently consulting on a suite of proposals that will lead to an increase in the supply and demand for secondary materials. These include reforming the UK packaging producer responsibility system, the introduction of a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England, and a tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content, all subject to consultation. These measures will provide a strong incentive for producers to design and make plastic packaging that uses less virgin materials and is more easily recyclable.

We want to increase the quantity and quality of material that is collected and recycled. To achieve this, we are consulting on requiring all waste collection authorities to collect the same core set of dry materials from households across England. We want to make recycling clearer and easier so that everyone knows exactly what they can put in the recycling bin, whether at work or at home.

The consultations setting out the Government’s proposals and measures referred to above were published on 18 February and can be found here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/resource-and-waste-and-plastic-packaging-tax-consu-1/.

There may be times when a ban is appropriate as part of a wider strategic approach. We have already banned the sale of plastic microbeads, consulted on banning plastic drinking straws, stirrers and cotton buds, and are assessing the impact of banning other single-use plastic items.