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 reduce the use of polystyrene chips in packaging.

Our Resources and Waste Strategy sets out our plans to reduce plastic pollution and move towards a more circular economy. This builds on the commitment in the 25 Year Environment Plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. For the most problematic plastics we are working faster, which is why we committed to work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

Generally, we prefer to help people make more sustainable choices, only resorting to a charge or a ban where we think this is necessary. We have recently undertaken a second consultation on introducing extended producer responsibility for packaging. This would see producers required to pay the costs of managing the packaging they place on the market including when it becomes waste. This will incentivise producers to question whether the packaging they use is necessary, could be reduced, or not used at all.

The consultation also proposed that producers' fees will be varied to help achieve intended outcomes of the scheme, such as increased recycling of packaging waste. Under this approach producers who use unrecyclable or difficult to recycle packaging such as polystyrene would be required to pay higher fees. This will further incentivise them to use recyclable or reusable packaging instead. We are now analysing the responses that were received and will publish our response in due course.

Industry is also taking action. The UK Plastics Pact, which accounts for over 85% of plastic packaging placed on the market, has committed to eliminating all polystyrene packaging by 2025.