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.

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.