Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they give, if any, to volunteer-run nappy libraries in England; and whether they have considered giving further support and, if so, in what form.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In March this year we published the findings of the Defra-funded Life Cycle Assessment of disposable and reusable nappies which looked at these products across 18 equally weighted environmental impact categories (see attachments).
The assessment shows that while disposable nappies have a slightly higher global warming potential, reusable nappies have a higher environmental impact in other ways. As there is no clear consensus on whether reusable or disposable nappies are better for the environment we have no plans to take further policy action on nappies at this time, including support for nappy libraries or the promotion of particular product types.
A number of local authorities already provide support towards upfront purchases of reusable nappies. The decision to support a reusable nappy service rests with individual local authorities and we have no plans to duplicate that work.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to help local councils promote the use of reusable nappies to families.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In March this year we published the findings of the Defra-funded Life Cycle Assessment of disposable and reusable nappies which looked at these products across 18 equally weighted environmental impact categories (see attachments).
The assessment shows that while disposable nappies have a slightly higher global warming potential, reusable nappies have a higher environmental impact in other ways. As there is no clear consensus on whether reusable or disposable nappies are better for the environment we have no plans to take further policy action on nappies at this time, including support for nappy libraries or the promotion of particular product types.
A number of local authorities already provide support towards upfront purchases of reusable nappies. The decision to support a reusable nappy service rests with individual local authorities and we have no plans to duplicate that work.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they are having with the EU regarding an SPS Veterinary Agreement following the implementation of the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
From 1 October, new arrangements under the Windsor Framework will ease the movement of food, plants, and seeds moving into Northern Ireland, protecting the availability, choice and supply of these essential goods.
For wider EU trading arrangements, the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) establishes trade based on zero tariffs and zero quotas, and the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the TCA creates a structure that allows the UK and the EU to take informed decisions to reduce their respective SPS controls, with a commitment to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade.
We previously raised SPS equivalence with the EU in TCA negotiations, and they would not countenance it. We are open to discussions with the EU on additional steps to further reduce trade friction, but these cannot be on the basis of future alignment with EU rules. This would compromise UK sovereignty over our own laws.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mandate certain products to be packaged in fully certified compostable packaging, such as tea bags, caddy liners, and food contaminated packaging.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In April 2021 we published our response to the call for evidence on the need for standards for bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics The Government has no plans to mandate making tea bags, caddy lines and food contaminated packaging compostable. Government measures focus on extracting maximum value from plastic materials by making sure we keep it in circulation for longer, moving away from a take, make, throw model and shifting towards a circular economy.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme will continue to recognise and incentivise private collection schemes, such as those which collect compostable packaging from closed-loop (on-premise) settings.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Under Extended Producer Responsibility, producers who collect and recycle consumer packaging waste at their own cost, where it is not commonly collected by local authorities for recycling, will be able to reduce their obligation to pay fees to cover the costs of managing household packaging. This is intended to support our transition to higher recycling rates as we invest in improved collection, sorting and recycling systems for hard to recycle packaging, or transition to using packaging that is already widely recyclable.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of composting facilities across England that treat compostable packaging.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are 199 composting facilities in England. There are 143 anaerobic digestion facilities with a permit to treat organic waste in England. 142 of these anaerobic digestion sites are wet AD sites which generally do not accept materials that need to be composted in an industrial composting process and one of these sites is a dry AD plant that may be able to treat compostable materials.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what engagement they have had with research projects sponsored by UK Research and Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, including Compostable Coalition UK’s ‘Closing the Loop for Compostable Packaging’ project.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK Government officials regularly engage with UK Research and Innovation to discuss projects under the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they last met with members of Compostable Coalition UK.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In 2019, we ran a call for evidence on the need for standards for bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics, to which stakeholders were invited to contribute.
Special Advisers also recently met with members of the Compostable Coalition on 1 March 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what engagement they have had with the organic recycling industry, including members of Compostable Coalition UK and the Association For Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, to inform the development of their waste management strategy for England.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In 2019, we ran a call for evidence on the need for standards for bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics, to which stakeholders were invited to contribute.
Special Advisers also recently met with members of the Compostable Coalition on 1 March 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for the delay in the publication of their assessment of the environmental impacts of disposable and reusable absorbent hygiene products; and whether they will publish this within the next two months.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Work on the environmental assessment of disposable and reusable nappies is nearly complete and peer review of the work is being finalised. No date has been set for publication, but we are working to get things finished as soon as possible.