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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the cost of recycling borne by (a) manufacturers and producers and (b) consumers.

The Department does not currently hold this information on the proportion of the costs of all recycling borne by manufacturers, producers and consumers. However, under the current Packaging Waste Regulations packaging producers and manufacturers financed £72.6 million in 2017 towards the costs of recycling packaging waste.

In the 25 Year Environment Plan we have committed to reform the producer responsibility system (including the Packaging Waste Regulations) to incentivise producers to take greater responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products. More detail will be announced in the Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published later this year.