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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research his Department has undertaken on the availability of fully compostable food packaging.

The Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy outlines our plans to reduce plastic pollution and our commitment to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. Packaging reform is our immediate priority, and we are consulting on reforms to the current packaging regulations.

We have committed to working towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. We will continue to establish and evaluate appropriate evidence, and once life-cycle analysis has established which product groups biodegradable or compostable plastics may be beneficial for, we will look at them again on a case by case basis.

We have no current estimates for fully compostable food waste packaging use in the UK.