Plastics: Waste
(asked on 26th June 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 estimate he has made of the quantity of UK plastic waste that has been returned from countries overseas; what steps he is taking to dispose of that waste; and if he will make a statement.
Waste management is a devolved matter and the figures provided here for plastic waste returned in the years 2016 to 2018 relate to England only.
The tonnages of returned waste shown in the table below are derived from requests made by regulators in other countries to the Environment Agency. When these instances occur the Environment Agency requires the exporter of the waste to make arrangements to bring it back. It is also the responsibility of the exporter to arrange for the returned waste to be dealt with in accordance with the waste hierarchy and in compliance with UK waste legislation.
Information on the corresponding annual tonnage and value of UK plastic waste exports are provided for the purpose of context.
Year | Plastic waste exported from UK, kilotonnes1 | Value of plastic waste exports from UK, £m2 | Plastic waste returned to England, kilotonnes3 |
2016 | 789.9 | 158.2 | 0.03 |
2017 | 660.7 | 138.7 | 4.19 |
2018 | 611.9 | 107.5 | 1.36 |
Sources:
1 and 2: HMRC customs data
3: Environment Agency