Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has further to help reduce dependency on single-use plastics items.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
We published our 25 Year Environment Plan on 11 January that stated our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste and, in particular, the waste from single-use plastics. The steps we will be taking to do this include introducing a DRS subject to consultation; exploring the introduction of plastic-free aisles by retailers; exploring how we can develop our producer responsibility schemes to give producers more incentives to design more resource efficient products; and looking at the compulsory extension of the carrier bag charge to small retailers.
In addition the Treasury published a call for evidence on 13 March that is seeking views on how the tax system or charges could reduce the amount of single-use plastics we use and, as a consequence, the waste that arises from that use by reducing the unnecessary production of these items; increasing reuse wherever feasible; and improving the levels of recycling.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what further steps the Government is taking to reduce food waste in UK supermarkets.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which receives funding from Defra, launched the Courtauld Commitment 2025 in March 2016. This is an ambitious voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system. Retailer signatories represent up to 95% of the UK food retail market. It is a ten-year commitment to identify priorities, develop solutions and implement changes at scale, both within signatory organisations and by spreading new best practice across the UK. The commitment goes further than ever before with ambitious industry targets to be reached by 2025. One of these is a 20% per capita reduction in food and drink waste in the UK.
On 21st December the Secretary of State announced that we will set up a new fund through the WRAP to ensure charities get additional resources to help redistribute food to those who need it rather than letting it go to waste. WRAP will make £0.5 million available to charities and other organisations. The new Food Waste Reduction Fund will provide grants to finance specific projects: fridges or vehicles, IT systems and software, or for training staff and volunteers about food safety skills.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans the Government has to promote the usage of brown food waste bins.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The provision of food waste collections has increased, with 50% of local authorities in England providing a dedicated food waste collection in 2016/17, either separate or mixed with garden waste, an increase from 27% in 2009. Separate food waste collected for recycling increased by 15% in 2016 to 353,000 tonnes from 307,000 tonnes in 2015.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has carried out pilot projects to help local authorities increase the amount of food waste collected. Alongside industry, WRAP has also published a Food Waste Recycling Action Plan which sets out sixteen actions to increase food waste collection.