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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to encourage recycling of plastic cartons.

Whilst most aspect of waste policy are devolved, the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations and Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) place a legal obligation on UK businesses that make or use packaging, including plastic cartons, to ensure that a proportion of the packaging they place on the market is recovered and recycled. This creates an incentive for companies to use less packaging and to ensure that their packaging can be recycled at end of life as it will reduce their costs in complying with the Regulations

The total amount of plastic material collected from waste from households for recycling has increased from 279 kilotonnes (kt) in 2010, to over 420kt in 2014. This performance has been down to the hard work of local authorities and residents to recycle more. Around 99% of local authorities covering 97% of households (low rise and flats) in England offer a collection service for plastic bottles. Seventy-two per cent of local authorities covering 67% of households also offer a collection service for plastic packaging (pots, tubs and trays).

The Government recognises that there are still challenges and is working with the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) to improve the recyclability of plastics and to help residents to recycle more. WRAP recently published new recycling guidelines agreed with local authorities, waste management companies and reprocessors. These set out in detail what can and cannot be collected for recycling and how householders can help to reduce contamination and increase recycling, including plastics recycling.