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 set a target for recycling disposable coffee cups.

Current packaging policies and regulations have resulted in recycling of packaging rising from around 46% in 2005 to 64% in 2016, with recycling of paper packaging at 82% in 2016 data.

We do not currently have plans to set a specific target for the recycling of disposable coffee cups. Under the Packaging Waste Regulations major coffee retailers already have a legal and financial obligation to recover and recycle a proportion of the packaging they place on the market, including disposable coffee cups.

The industry is also taking further, voluntary action aimed at significantly increasing paper cup recycling rates by 2020.