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Written question asked by Ruth Jones (Labour) on Wednesday, 24 February 2021, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 March 2021. It was answered by Rebecca Pow (Conservative) on Friday, 5 March 2021 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Packaging: Recycling

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the volume of flexible packaging that would be diverted from landfill in the event that such material was collected for recycling from households in England from 2023.

Answer

In our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy we committed to taking actions to help stimulate private investment in reprocessing and recycling infrastructure, as this will help to meet the target of 65% of municipal waste to be recycled by 2035.

In 2019 we consulted on such actions. Namely, a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers, extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging and consistency in recycling collections, which will be legislated for using primary powers granted by the Environment Bill. These measures will stimulate investment in improved collection and sorting, increasing the supply of higher quality materials needed to support investment in domestic reprocessing infrastructure. In addition, HM Treasury's Plastic Packaging Tax will increase the demand for recycled plastic, further stimulating investment in domestic reprocessing.

We plan to undertake second consultations on a DRS for drinks containers, packaging EPR, and consistency in recycling collections this spring.

Flexible packaging will be considered as part of EPR and consistency consultations. Initial analysis suggests flexible packaging could make an important contribution to plastic packaging recycling rates, and therefore reduce the amount of this material that would otherwise be sent to landfill or energy from waste facilities. We will be setting out our policy proposals and supporting analysis in relation to flexible packaging in these consultations.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
158211
Session
2019-21
Subjects
Recycling Packaging
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk