Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about plastic pollution and the Backbench Business Debate on the Global Plastics Treaty.
I am aware that during the debate my colleague, Robbie Moore MP, Shadow Defra Minister, said, securing an effective global framework to reduce plastic use is key. An agreement should have verifiable targets that can be measured. Naturally, all signatories should be expected to fulfil those obligations. The Government will be held to account over its action on plastic pollution. However, thanks to action taken by the last Conservative Government, significant progress has already been made to address plastic pollution, including a ban on microbeads and restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. It was a Conservative Government in 2015, who introduced the small charge of plastic bags which, as a result, has reduced the single-use carrier bags by over 98 per cent.
Furthermore, also due to action taken by the previous Government, restrictions on a range of single-use plastics, including plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers have come into force. I understand that before the ban was implemented, England previously used 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery and over 700 million single-use plates per year, but only 10 per cent were recycled. This ban is helping to crack down on harmful plastic waste.
The Environment Act 2021 sets a target to halve residual waste by 2042. This refers to waste that is sent to landfill, put through incineration, or used in energy recovery in the UK or overseas. This is an intentionally broad target, which will include the most environmentally harmful materials like plastics, rather than banning a single type of material and risk producers moving to a different, more harmful material.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Fuller MP