Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Conclusion 30
Third Report - The price of plastic: ending the toll of plastic waste
Published 7 Nov 2022
Paragraph 141
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
However, the incoming Government needs to join up its existing proposals for data collection under Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and waste tracking to create a unified system. The previous Government’s argument—that such a system is less useful for ‘single-use items’ like packaging—is flawed. Packaging needs to be valued so that it reused, retained and recycled in the most efficient ways possible. The new Government should follow up on its predecessor’s proposal that “recycling enablers” could be a mandatory part of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and work with industry to develop a comprehensive marking system that will integrate with digital waste tracking in the future. As well as providing data on the life cycle of plastic packaging and how it is used and disposed of, this marking system should openly share information about the nature of plastics on the market. This will help all stakeholders in the supply chain understand and maximise the value of such material and create the most efficient recycling system for them.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Third Report - The price of plastic: ending the toll of plastic waste (HC 22), paragraph 141, 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.