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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the level of microplastic pollution in biosolids; and whether his Department is taking steps to help tackle this issue.

The Government continues to review the regulatory framework for biosolids spread to land to protect human health and the environment.

The Government has taken a range of steps to stop sources of plastics and microplastics entering sewers and moving into biosolids, including:

• We have already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and the Government has been working at pace with devolved administrations to deliver a ban on wet wipes containing plastic. We recently ran a consultation on this and a government response setting out more information will be published in the spring.

• We have funded research to examine wider sources of microplastics, including tyres and textiles. Defra has also contributed to the design and development of the UK Water Industry Research funded and led Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP) to improve our understanding of quantity and source of contaminants, including microplastics, in biosolids. This research will help to inform future policy.

• In Defra’s Plan for Water, there is a commitment for industry and businesses to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters in washing machines as a measure to reduce a primary source of microplastic fibres to wastewater treatment and the wider environment and encourage their use. Defra commissioned an evidence assessment to understand the efficiencies, costs and benefits of installing filters in washing machines to trap microplastic fibres shredded from clothing during washing cycles. The report showed that filters demonstrated a range of efficiencies and costs associated with them. We recommended that filter manufacturers collaborate with the washing machine industry to develop and implement standardised tests to provide unequivocal performance data for the relevant government departments to consider. We await industry’s proposals.