Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to develop a critical mineral circular economy industry in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In line with our Resources and Waste Strategy, published in December 2018, we are taking steps to move from a linear economy to a more circular economy. This includes by seeking new legislative powers under the landmark Environment Bill that will enable us to: drive design for durability, reparability and recyclability of products such as electronics; require provision of information on products such as material content, including Critical Raw Materials (CRMs); and put in place extended producer responsibility schemes. We are also working with BEIS to utilise our repatriated EU powers to introduce eco-design measures relating to energy-using products. Our planned review of, and subsequent consultation on, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, and the Batteries Regulations, will also provide an opportunity for consideration of the management of critical minerals. At this stage there are no plans to use the powers in the Environment Bill, or other powers, to set specific recycling targets for critical minerals.
In addition, in November 2020 we announced 5 new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres as part of £30 million of Government investment. Two of these relate to CRMs and metals – the UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals, and the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Metal. These will explore how reusing waste materials could deliver environmental benefits and boost the UK economy.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to include an extended producer responsibility scheme for tobacco litter such as filters in his Department's Waste and Resource Strategy; and if he will hold a public consultation on such a scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government has made no specific recent assessment of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking-related litter. We would like to see the tobacco industry delivering on the commitment given by the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association to tackle the litter created by its products and their users. The Government supports ongoing efforts by environmental organisation Keep Britain Tidy to work in partnership with the tobacco industry to devise a voluntary scheme through which the industry can contribute to the clean-up of cigarette related litter, and is watching this space with interest. However, this must be achieved without breaching the UK’s international obligations, such as protecting our tobacco control and public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Tobacco packaging is covered by the current producer responsibility regulations, which require companies to recycle a proportion of the packaging waste they place on the market. They will also be subject to the forthcoming extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging which will cover the full net costs of managing packaging at its end of life. In our consultation we proposed that producer fees should cover the full cost to local authorities of dealing with littered and fly-tipped packaging waste.
In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to looking into and consulting on EPR for five new waste-streams by 2025, and consulting on two of these by 2022. Waste tobacco filters were not included in this list of priorities but progress on the industry's voluntary approach to litter reduction will be monitored.
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive includes measures to implement an EPR scheme for tobacco products with filters, and filters marketed for use in combination with tobacco products, which should cover the costs of awareness raising, data gathering and litter clean-up of these products.
Now that the UK has left the EU, the Government will use this opportunity to refresh and renew our environmental policy. In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to meeting or exceeding the ambition of the EU Directive, and we will do this in a way that works best for the UK’s aspirations in this policy area.