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 single-use plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables in supermarkets.

We are taking action to reduce single use plastic packaging for all products in supermarkets, with whom we meet regularly.

We are planning to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging, which will place responsibility on producers for the full cost of managing their packaging waste, powerfully incentivising them to cut waste wherever possible. The Government’s Plastic Packaging Tax comes in from April and will see a charge of £200 per tonne on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content, helping to support the use of increasingly sustainable packaging.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has published guidance on the sale of loose and prepacked foods and we continue to explore opportunities to provide the best environmental outcome, reduce household food waste and the provision of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging.