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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) support and (b) incentivise small food and catering businesses to reduce plastic waste.

The Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy, published last December, sets out our approach to eliminating avoidable plastic waste. As part of this, we propose to introduce requirements for businesses in England, which would include small food and catering businesses, to present a core set of materials for recycling. We will ensure that smaller businesses are not disadvantaged by these new requirements and, through our consultation on this proposal which closed in May, have sought views on how to help these businesses reduce the costs of waste collection.

The Government also consulted on reforming packaging waste regulations to financially incentivise packaging producers to reduce the use of unnecessary and difficult to recycle packaging, and to produce packaging that can be recycled. These reforms, along with our proposals on consistency of recycling collections, should ensure that more of the plastic used by small food and catering businesses can be and will be recycled.