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 implications for his policies of levels of plastic pollution per capita in the UK; what steps his Department is taking to tackle those levels; and what plans he has to reduce plastic waste generation in the long-term.

We have banned the use of microbeads in rinse-off personal care products. Our single-use plastic carrier bag charge, now 10p, has reduced the number of such bags given out by the main supermarkets by over 98%. We brought in measures to restrict the supply of single-use plastic straws and single-use plastic stemmed cotton buds and ban the supply of plastic drink stirrers in 2020. In October 2023, we also banned the supply of single-use plastic plates, bowls, and trays to the end-user and banned the supply of single-use plastic cutlery and single-use plastic balloon sticks and expanded and foamed extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups. In April 2022, we brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax, a tax of £200 per tonne on plastic packaging manufactured in, or imported into the UK, that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. From April 2023, it has increased in line with inflation to £210.82/tonne.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) will make producers responsible for the costs of collecting and managing packaging they place on the market when it is no longer used and becomes waste. This will encourage businesses to think carefully about how much packaging they use, to design and use packaging that is easily recyclable, and to use reusable and refillable packaging. This will contribute to our goals of a more circular economy, in which resources are kept in use for longer, minimising the waste we create, and cutting carbon emissions.

As one of the founding members of the high ambition coalition of countries calling for an end to plastic pollution by 2040, the UK will do all we can to press for the agreement of a high ambition Treaty by the end of 2024.