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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with (a) manufacturers and (b) supermarkets and their supply chains on reducing plastic waste.

The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, and in December 2018 we published the Resources and Waste Strategy which sets out how we want to achieve this and move towards a circular economy which aims to keep resources in the system for as long as possible.

Our Environment Bill will enable us to change significantly the way that we manage our waste and take forward a number of the proposals from the Resources and Waste Strategy. The Bill will include powers to create extended producer responsibility schemes; introduce deposit return schemes; establish greater consistency in the recycling system; better control the export of plastic waste; and give us the power to set new charges for other single-use plastic items. Further information can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/news/stronger-protections-for-the-environment-move-closer-as-landmark-bill-takes-shape.

We have recently consulted on a deposit return scheme for drinks containers, extended producer responsibility for packaging and our reforms to household and business waste collection. Alongside these public consultations, within Government the Resources and Waste Strategy division (RWS) conducts regular meetings with key stakeholders across the supply chain to discuss our policy development and ambitions. For example, the RWS Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) meets quarterly, and the members invited cover a broad range of areas within the resources and waste sector , including representatives of manufacturers, supermarkets and their supply chains.

The Government also works closely with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). In April 2018, WRAP launched the UK Plastics Pact (UKPP) in association with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF). The UK Plastics Pact is a collaborative initiative to create a circular system that keeps plastic in the economy and out of the natural environment. The Pact’s members include over 95% of the UK grocery market by market share in 2019. By 2025 members have agreed to meeting the following targets: eliminate problematic/unnecessary single-use plastic packaging; 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable; 70% of plastic packaging to be effectively recycled or composted; and finally, 30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging.