Plastic Pollution Reduction

Baroness Boycott Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd April 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Boycott]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce plastic pollution; and what plans they have to set binding targets for that reduction.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, this Government have taken decisive action to tackle plastic pollution. We banned single-use vapes from June 2025 and will ban plastic wet wipes from spring 2027. We have introduced extended producer responsibility for packaging, implemented simpler recycling reforms, and our deposit return scheme launches in 2027. In addition, we will soon publish a circular economy growth plan for England, which will include opportunities for the chemicals and plastics sector, and we are actively pursuing an ambitious global plastic pollution treaty.

[Baroness Boycott (CB)]

I thank the Minister very much—a lot of that is very encouraging, but at the moment only 9% of plastic waste is ever recycled. The majority is incinerated, landfilled or exported to other countries with weak regulation. The industry treats the plastic packaging tax as a routine cost. So can the Minister explain how strong the extended producer responsibility will be, because, if we do it fully, we can get companies to change the content of plastic, making it better for society and better to recycle. For instance, in the USA, a box of Subway wrappers at the moment costs the company $50, and if the EPR were fully implemented, it would be $49. However, if it used a natural polymer, the EPR would drop to $5. So, much as with the sugar tax, we can get people to reformulate if we do it fully and hard. That, I am not sure about yet.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a really important point. If we are going to bring in such reforms, we have to make sure that they will do what we want them to do, and therefore we have to work very closely with business. The EPR for packaging is now live and, from year 2 of the scheme, packaging disposal fees will be modulated so that more readily recyclable packaging will cost less and harder-to-recycle packaging will cost more, because that is the direction we want to drive things in. We are trying to create a direct financial incentive for businesses to reduce non-recyclable plastic packaging and switch to more recyclable alternatives. As part of that, clearly, we need to monitor how well it is operating and how well we are delivering it. It is important to take into account what the noble Baroness talks about within that process.