Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) Royal Gala and (b) other types of apples were exported to EU member states in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
HMRC trade data is unable to identify Royal Gala apples by name. The following table shows the volume of apples exported from the UK to EU member states, at the greatest level of detail available, in the last 5 years for which full data is available:
tonnes | |||||
Apple type | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Cider | 123 | 27 | 1,658 | 1,328 | 1,456 |
Other | 20,608 | 21,113 | 15,886 | 19,745 | 16,277 |
Total | 20,731 | 21,140 | 17,544 | 21,074 | 17,733 |
Table Source: HMRC
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the use of non-recyclable plastics and other packaging in the UK.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Our policies and regulations - such as the Packaging Waste Regulations - are designed to increase recycling and reduce the amount of packaging that ends up in the natural environment.
In September 2016, the Waste and Resources Action Programme and an industry advisory group published a framework for greater consistency, encouraging councils to recycle a common set of materials, as well as setting out actions to rationalise packaging, particularly plastics, into items that can be collected for recycling while supporting innovation in packaging design.
Almost all packaging is technically recyclable, although some local authorities and waste management companies choose not to collect some types of packaging for recycling for various reasons, including cost of investing in new machinery which can sort this packaging.