Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants in removing microplastics from waste water.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A recent UK water industry project investigated the quantities and types of microplastics entering a range of wastewater treatment works. The Department reviewed the findings from the work and agrees with the conclusion that conventional wastewater treatment is effective in removing microplastics from wastewater. The evidenced showed treatment processes can take out an average of 99% of microplastics (by-number of microplastics) and 99.5% by-mass from wastewater arriving at the works.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent microplastics entering waterways from washing machines.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government recently funded an external rapid evidence assessment to better understand the costs, benefits, and efficiencies of installing filters in washing machines. The filters aim to trap textile microplastic fibres during the laundry cycle and before discharge to sewer networks and wastewater treatment works. The assessment concluded further evidence was needed to determine how to avert additional costs incurred by consumers of new washing machines with filters, and the consumer’s sustainable disposal of used filters. Industry are currently conducting research and developing proposals to develop filters that meet this criteria, and Government are happy to review any research in this area.
A water industry investigation of the levels and types of microplastics entering a range of UK wastewater treatment works reported that conventional treatment can remove 99% of microplastics by number and 99.5% by mass.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the level of microplastic pollution in biosolids; and whether his Department is taking steps to help tackle this issue.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government continues to review the regulatory framework for biosolids spread to land to protect human health and the environment.
The Government has taken a range of steps to stop sources of plastics and microplastics entering sewers and moving into biosolids, including:
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a technical standard for microplastic filters in washing machines; and whether his Department has had recent discussions with industry representatives on developing a technical standard.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In Defra’s Plan for Water, there is a commitment for industry and businesses to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters in washing machines and encourage their use.
Defra commissioned an evidence assessment to understand the efficiencies, costs and benefits of installing filters in washing machines to trap microplastic fibres shredded from clothing during washing cycles. The report showed that filters demonstrated a range of efficiencies and costs associated with them. We recommended that filter manufacturers collaborate with the washing machine industry to develop and implement standardised tests to provide unequivocal performance data for the relevant government departments to consider. We await industry’s proposals.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the average amount of microplastics present in sewage sludge.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Research has been performed to improve the understanding of microplastics in sewage sludge. Defra has contributed to the design and development of the UK Water Industry Research funded and led Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP) in this area. While the third CIP phase, reported in 2022, estimated an average mass of microplastics in final sludge products (generated from the sewage treatment processes), it was noted there could be large differences in the estimated values, and in sludge products from different works, and between sludge product samples taken at different occasions from the same treatment works.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help tackle microplastic pollution originating from textiles.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Microplastics can enter the environment from several sources such as vehicle tyre wear, machine-washing clothes and from textiles themselves.
Defra funded a rapid evidence assessment in 2022 to better understand the costs, benefits, and efficiencies of installing filters in washing machines to trap textile microfibres during the laundry cycle and before discharge to wastewater treatment works. Evidence gaps were identified from the review and the conclusion was made that further information is required to meet the legal framework to drive action. For example, there is a need to better understand how to avert additional costs incurred by consumers of new washing machines with filters, and the consumer’s sustainable disposal of used filters. We need to ensure all evidence to support the introduction of filters is robust and fully reviewed. We have conveyed this to the industry, and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.
We are also working with the UK water industry to understand the effectiveness of other interventions in the wastewater system to tackle microplastic pollution and to characterise and quantify microplastics and fibres entering wastewater treatment works. Research to-date shows that wastewater treatment plants are effective at removing microplastics and -fibres from wastewater from the home environment, with up to 99% of microplastic particles removed throughout the wastewater treatment process.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the extent of the impact of the (a) design and (b) manufacture of textiles on microplastic pollution.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has not made (actual) assessments of the impact of the design and manufacture of textiles on environmental microplastic pollution. Defra recently funded a project to develop and validate methods to detect, quantify and characterise microplastics and microplastic fibres from textiles used in clothing in rivers and their sediments. The techniques were tested on urban and rural rivers, and it was found higher levels of microplastics were present in the urban river.
Defra provided grant funding of £860000 to WRAP's Textiles 2030, which began in 2021. The programme brings together brands & retailers representing more than 62% of all clothing placed on the UK market to drive industry collaboration on circular design, circular business models, (resale, rental, subscription, repair, recycling) and closing the loop on materials (recycling).
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of wastewater treatment networks in filtering out microplastics.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government recently funded an external rapid evidence assessment to better understand the costs, benefits, and efficiencies of installing filters in washing machines. The filters aim to trap textile microplastic fibres during the laundry cycle and before discharge to sewer networks and wastewater treatment works. The assessment concluded further evidence was needed to determine how to avert additional costs incurred by consumers of new washing machines with filters, and the consumer’s sustainable disposal of used filters.
A water industry investigation of the levels and types of microplastics entering a range of UK wastewater treatment works reported that conventional treatment can remove 99% of microplastics by number and 99.5% by mass.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the amount of microplastics in tap water.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has published two research projects on microplastics in drinking water – one in January 2019 reviewing the potential risks from nanoparticles and microplastics and another in October 2022 looking at the removal of microplastics by drinking water treatment processes.
The research by the DWI found that more than 99.99% of microplastic particles were removed through conventional drinking water treatment processes. As a consequence of the removal rates, microplastics were present at very low levels in drinking water. Their contribution to total daily exposure, and presenting a potential risk to human health, was likely to be low or insignificant. The World Health Organization has also recommended that routine monitoring of microplastics in drinking water was not necessary at this time.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has had discussions with businesses on installing microfibre filters in washing machines.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In Defra’s Plan for Water, there is a commitment for industry and businesses to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters in washing machines to capture microfibre and encourage their effective use.
This approach is informed by the evidence that shows that there is not a sufficient benefit to the environment for legislating the installation of microfibre-capturing filters in all new washing machines. Recent analyses showed an estimated increased cost from between £30 to £122 for a microfibre filter per machine and user behaviour around disposal of captured microfibres can make render the filters ineffective.
We have conveyed this to industry colleagues, and we look forward to receiving a response which will help us to progress the issue.