Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 27
Third Report - The price of plastic: ending the toll of plastic waste
Published 7 Nov 2022
Paragraph 129
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Plastic waste All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We are pleased that the previous Government signed the UK up to the UN Environment Assembly agreement working towards a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution, and welcome the UK’s founding membership of the related High Ambition Coalition within the forthcoming negotiations. However, we believe that, without the inclusion of legally binding targets, the treaty risks being ineffective in tackling one of the biggest environmental threats our planet faces. We urge the new Government to reaffirm commitments to the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) 62 The price of plastic: ending the toll of plastic waste initiative to deal with plastic pollution and to the High Ambition Coalition supporting the process. We also recommend that the new Government plays a leading role in future UNEA negotiations by pushing for legally binding targets to be included in the treaty.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Third Report - The price of plastic: ending the toll of plastic waste (HC 22), paragraph 129, 7 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 January 2023 (deadline 7 January 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee on the importance of the waste hierarchy and on reuse, but disagrees with several recommendations, including dropping the qualifier "avoidable" from the 2042 plastic waste target and a ban on all plastic waste exports.
- It agrees that more use of reusable packaging is desirable and intends to "come forward with our proposals in 2024" on measures such as targets, obligations and whether there is a role for modulating fees.
- It disagrees with an exit strategy for the Packaging Waste Recovery Note system within a year of EPR starting, because it wants "to make sure we put the right measures in place at the right time".
- It disagrees with modulating the Plastic Packaging Tax, saying the 30% recycled content threshold is "ambitious", and keeps the rate and threshold "under review". Changes are a matter for Treasury Ministers.
- It disagrees with a ban on all plastic waste exports, expecting "legitimate exports to continue", and has committed to banning exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries.