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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a 1p levy per garment at the point of retail to fund improved clothing recycling and collection.

The Government’s Resources & Waste Strategy identified textiles as one of five priority sectors for consideration of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. Our draft Waste Prevention Programme, recently consulted on, affirms this commitment and sets out our consultation approach.

We have commenced the process of developing options, with EPR at the core but also including complementary policies. We will consult with stakeholders on policy options by the end of 2022.

As part of this policy development, we will consider the fee levels required to drive industry change and support real reprocessing costs. We will take on board the experience in France, which has faced challenges in doing so.