Packaging: Recycling

(asked on 25th November 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reforming subsidies for recycling processing plants to incentivise the processing of packaging waste in the UK rather than exporting waste overseas.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 30th November 2020

The Government does not provide any subsidies to the sector and there has been no formal assessment of subsidies to incentivise the reprocessing and recycling of waste in the UK.

The Government has committed to reforming the current packaging producer responsibility scheme (‘the packaging recovery note’ system) whereby re-processors and exporters of packaging waste can issue evidence that packaging waste has been recycled. Together with the devolved administrations, the Government consulted on initial proposals in 2019 and will consult again in 2021.

The Government has committed to banning the export of plastic waste to countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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