Recommendation 3

HM Government Accepted in Part

The government agrees with the Committee on the importance of the waste hierarchy. We have been developing a new Waste Prevention Programme for England – a cross- Departmental plan for action to support a shift of material and products up the waste hierarchy. The Programme builds on the Resources and Waste Strategy (2018) and aims to embed a circular economy approach by retaining materials and products in circulation for as long as possible and at their highest value. It will also support the commitment in the government’s Net Zero Strategy to the near elimination of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028 and reduced emissions from landfill and incineration, as well as supporting the government commitment to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042. We intend to publish the new Programme in 2023. To drive down the amount of waste we produce, and encourage re-use and recycling, the government has set a statutory target, as required by the Environment Act 2021, to cut residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes) kg per person by 50% by 20422. This will include plastic waste. It is proposed that this will be measured as a reduction from the 2019 level, which is estimated to be approximately 574 kg per person. This legally binding long-term target will drive action by successive governments to protect and enhance our natural world and will allow for objective scrutiny and accountability of government’s progress to society. A target to reduce residual waste aligns with wider government priorities to maximise the value of resources and minimise the environmental impact of waste. We propose to measure at the endpoint of waste management to include the treatments that are typically associated with residual waste, covering waste that is sent to landfill, put through incineration (including energy from waste incineration), sent overseas for energy recovery or used in energy recovery for fuel. The government will continue to review which treatments are appropriate to include as new technologies and treatment options emerge. Environment Agency data on permitted waste site activities and international waste shipments will be used to report on the metric. This will provide a robust approach, recognising that there is limited data availability at the point waste is collected. There is a risk when setting individual, material-specific statutory targets, such as a plastics waste reduction target, that these would risk shifting the environmental impact to other environmentally harmful material types, as the Committee has acknowledged, and could even lead to increases in residual waste tonnages due to switching to heavier materials. Including a wide range of materials ensures a holistic view to waste is taken and reduces waste overall. We agree with the Committee on the importance of ambition and target ambition is at the upper limits of our forecasted range, satisfying Environment Act requirements that it can be met. The Committee should note that the current producer responsibility packaging waste regulations include recycling targets for packaging by material. The provisional recycling rate reported for plastic packaging in 2021 is 44.2%. Producers show compliance with their recycling obligations by acquiring packaging waste recycling notes or packaging waste export recycling notes (PRN/PERNs). Each PRN/PERN relates to a tonne of packaging waste that has been received for recycling (or exported for recycling) by an accredited reprocessor or exporter. It is our intention that the new regulations that will introduce packaging extended producer responsibility (pEPR) will set packaging waste recycling targets on producers to 2030. For plastic packaging in scope of pEPR, in the Government Response published in March 2022, we proposed a recycling target of 62% by 2030. The regulations will clarify the point at which evidence of recycling can be issued and hence the point of measurement of recycling, that is once packaging waste has been received and prepared for recycling at the reprocessing site. As we move to a more circular economy, recycling will continue to play a key role in our waste systems, and we will encourage producers to use materials and design packaging that is easy to recycle. Recycling is important as it returns materials into the economic cycle and prevents packaging being disposed of in landfill or by incineration, options which are at the bottom of the hierarchy. The new regulations will clarify the point at which of evidence of recycling can be issued – that is once it has been received and prepared for recycling at the UK reprocessing site or the overseas site. We also recognise the importance of continuing to move focus to reuse, prevention and reduction. Government wants to see more use of reusable/refillable packaging, which is why we have signalled our intention to introduce obligations on producers once the new arrangements for pEPR are in place and further work on how best to introduc