Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 98
There is no technological silver bullet to resolve the challenges of recycling plastic waste.
Conclusion
There is no technological silver bullet to resolve the challenges of recycling plastic waste. We welcome the work of the previous Government and industry to strengthen the mechanical recycling sector. However, it appears likely that this will need to be supported by other technologies in order to create a circular economy and sustainably manage flexible and other hard-to-recycle plastics. This is likely to involve the application of chemical recycling and compostable packaging in distinct areas where mechanical recycling is not a good solution: such as potentially using compostable packaging for food-contaminated products.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges that chemical recycling has a role to play where mechanical recycling is not viable. They also agree on the importance of clarity when labeling and note the CMA published guidance for businesses in 2021 to help them understand and comply with consumer protection laws.
Paragraph Reference:
98
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The government will publish the ‘Waste Infrastructure Roadmap’ this year. On the role of chemical recycling, WRAP has published a Plastic Waste Hierarchy6, commissioned by Defra, that clearly shows that chemical, or non-mechanical, recycling is a recycling activity, but is less preferable when compared to conventional, mechanical recycling. Chemical recycling therefore has a role to play where mechanical recycling is not viable. The government agrees with the Committee on the importance of clarity when labelling and notes that the Competition and Markets Authority published helpful guidance7 for businesses in 2021 to help them understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer protection law when making environmental claims. This guidance provides examples of the use of terms ‘biodegradable’, ‘compostable’, and ‘recyclable’. The government does agree that the term ‘biodegradable’ is unhelpful and in some cases misleading, as it does not necessarily specify how long a material will take to ‘biodegrade’ completely, under what circumstances it will biodegrade and into what outputs. Prior to labelling packaging as ‘recycle’ or ‘do not recycle’ businesses will need to assess the recyclability of their packaging. Government will be commissioning the development of a recyclability methodology so that packaging can be assessed following a common approach and against agreed criteria. Government will invite tenders for the development of this assessment methodology, however a key consideration in determining whether packaging is recyclable or not will be the availability of collection services for recyclable packaging materials and sorting / processing facilities to enable that packaging to be recycled. Along with all other packaging types, compostable and biodegradable packaging will need to be assessed using this approach and the packaging labelled according to the outputs. However, in the Government Response to the pEPR consultation published in March 2022 it was acknowledged that until the infrastructure and evidence base is improved, compostable and biodegradable packaging would be expected to have the ‘do not recycle’ label applied. On recommendations for government to make a decision on the role of compostable plastics, it should be noted that the government position on these materials is already very clear. Compostable plastics have a limited role to play in a circular economy, given they are inherently single use. A 2020 Eunomia report, titled ‘Relevance of Biodegradable and Compostable Consumer Plastic Products and Packaging in a Circular Economy’ established that currently there is inadequate (peer-reviewed) evidence to suggest that 6 The Plastics Waste Hierarchy | WRAP 7 Green claims code: making environmental claims - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)