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 support the creation of new recycling infrastructure.

Through our Resources and Waste Strategy we have set long-term targets to divert more waste from landfill and to drive up recycling. Key ambitions include delivering a 65% municipal waste recycling rate by 2035, a minimum 70% recycling rate for packaging waste by 2030 and implementing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers, subject to consultation. The publication of the Strategy, setting out the long-term policy environment will encourage and support the required investment.

Specific measures taken by the Government that are already supporting the creation of new recycling infrastructure include:

• £4.7m of grant funding, which was announced on 12 June and made available through the Waste and Resources Action Programme, to support new capital infrastructure projects that will help to recycle difficult plastic packaging and textile materials. Further grant opportunities around recycling will follow in due course.

• The packaging waste producer responsibility scheme, which raised £130 million in 2018 through the purchase by producers of packaging waste recovery and export notes. Just under £82 million of this supported the development of infrastructure. Proposed reforms will support the development of new and improved recycling infrastructure.

• Investment of £3 billion of grant funding in 24 Private Finance Initiative waste infrastructure projects. These grants support infrastructure including material recovery, mechanical biological treatment and anaerobic digestion facilities, as well as implementation and expanding kerbside recycling services.