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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the December 2018 document, Our Waste, Our Resources: A strategy for England, what steps her Department has taken to extend the lives of products through repair, reuse and remanufacture.

Our Strategy is guided by the objectives of maximising the value of resource use and minimising waste and its impact on the environment. One of our underlying principles is to prevent waste, where we can, from occurring in the first place.

With this in mind, we have taken steps towards supporting ecodesign of products so they are durable, repairable and capable of remanufacture. We are seeking powers in the Environment Bill to put in place, subject to consultation, ecodesign and consumer information requirements for non-energy using products. As to energy-using products, we will seek to drive change to ensure products can be repaired, reused and remanufactured making use of powers on ecodesign that we are taking back from the EU. The powers in the Environment Bill will enable us to supplement these requirements with consumer information requirements to facilitate sustainable purchasing. We are also reviewing the contribution that producer responsibility schemes for priority products could make to encourage better product design.

Additionally, we are in the process of developing a new Waste Prevention Programme for England, on which it is intended to consult this year, aimed at supporting reuse, repair and remanufacture as well as other means of waste prevention.