Natural Resources: Consumption

(asked on 29th June 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 recent steps he has taken to reduce resource consumption in the UK.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 7th July 2021

Our plans for reducing resource consumption and preventing waste in England were set out in our draft Waste Prevention Programme for England - Towards a Resource Efficient Economy, which we consulted on between March and June this year. This builds on the measures set out in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy and includes designing products which last longer and that can be reused, repaired or remanufactured, coupled with supporting systems and business models to keep goods and materials in circulation for longer.

As part of this we are exploring ways to help consumers and producers make more sustainable decisions for instance through information and labelling, incentives such as the carrier bag charge, introducing producer responsibility schemes, and looking at how the Government and local authorities can support reuse and repair as well as alternative models such as renting and sharing.

The devolved administrations were aware of our consultation on a new Waste Prevention Programme, and the policy proposals it contains are being discussed at official level.

The responses to the public consultation are now being analysed and we plan to publish a new Waste Prevention Programme for England in the autumn.

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