Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase the level of recycling of single use drinks containers.

Our policies and regulations – such as the Packaging Waste Regulations – are designed to increase recycling and reduce the amount of packaging ending up in the natural environment.

As part of the Litter Strategy for England, the Government has established the Voluntary and Economic Incentives Working Group. As its first piece of work, we have asked the Working Group to look at regulatory or voluntary measures to reduce littering and/or improve the recycling of drinks containers.

On 2 October the Working Group launched a call for evidence which remains open until 30 October. The call for evidence includes questions on the costs, benefits and impacts of deposit and reward and return schemes. The Group is due to provide us with advice on potential incentives for drinks containers early in 2018.

The Government will set out a new Resources and Waste Strategy in 2018. It will set out how we will work towards our ambition for zero avoidable waste by 2050.