Written Question
Wednesday 26th February 2020
Asked by:
Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question
to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the amount of plastic waste being sent to landfill.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Permitted sites are required to submit their waste data to the Environment Agency (EA) and this represents the main data available on waste that goes to landfill. This data categorises waste according to the European Waste Catalogue (EWC).
Under EWC, only a limited number of categories are clearly identifiable as plastic waste. The EA was notified that 82,358 tonnes of waste identifiable as plastic was sent to landfill facilities in 2018.
However, the vast majority of waste received at landfill sites is reported as mixed waste, for example municipal waste. It will contain a proportion of plastic waste. The EA is not able to estimate plastic content of mixed waste and other EWC categories and cannot reliably provide the total plastic waste disposed to landfill.
In our Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to landfilling 10% or less of the municipal waste generated by 2035 and to implementing measures that will improve the quality and quantity of plastic waste collected for recycling, and ultimately lead to less plastic waste sent to landfill. The Environment Bill sets out provisions to improve the separate collection of recyclable waste (including plastic packaging waste); for example, from 2023 all collectors of waste will be required to collect a core set of materials, including plastics, for recycling from households, non-domestic, and commercial and industrial premises.
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"Thank you, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) on securing this important debate. Her parting shot was that her constituents do not want an ecological eyesore as their new landmark, and my constituents feel exactly the same way about the proposals to …..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"It is critical that we redouble efforts to ensure that anything that can be reused and recycled is extracted from the waste stream, whether metal or plastic. At Barton Stacey Primary School, the children have embraced the message we heard a few weeks ago in another room in Parliament, when …..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Waste Incineration Facilities
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"Will the Minister give way on that point?..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Waste Incineration Facilities
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"I respectfully point out that the Minister has 12 more minutes. This issue is important. We heard the comment in the October 2018 Budget statement, and we have heard the Minister’s comments on it now. Is she prepared to put a timescale on that?..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Waste Incineration Facilities
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"Will the Minister give way?..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Waste Incineration Facilities
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 11 Feb 2020
Waste Incineration Facilities
"My hon. Friend appears to have only one page of her speech left, so I am sure we have plenty of time for her to read that out. I am conscious that she has made many comments about municipal waste facilities, but unfortunately the proposal in my constituency is not …..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Waste Incineration Facilities
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 28 Jan 2020
Industrial and Commercial Waste Incineration
"It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty). He and I have not historically agreed on much, but we certainly agree on this. I will not pretend that I am bringing expert views …..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 28 Oct 2019
Restoring Nature and Climate Change
"It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon and to follow the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), who serves on the Environmental Audit Committee. When I first came to this place, I served on that Committee alongside the Minister, and we spent many a jolly afternoon debating …..."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 28 Oct 2019
Restoring Nature and Climate Change
"I have in my constituency the finest chalk stream in the world, the River Test. It is not simply abstraction that is one of our big challenges; we have a significant problem with nitrates going into our watercourses, which is causing huge challenges locally...."Caroline Nokes - View Speech
View all Caroline Nokes (Con - Romsey and Southampton North) contributions to the debate on: Restoring Nature and Climate Change