Thank you for contacting me about plastic pollution.
The Resources and Waste Strategy for England sets out the Government’s plans to reduce, reuse, and recycle more plastic and Ministers have committed to work towards all plastic packaging on the market being recyclable or reusable by 2025.
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. The use of single-use carrier bags in supermarkets has reduced by over 98%.
Further, 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 now come into force. England uses 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery and over 700 million single-use plates per year, but only 10% are recycled. This new ban is the next step in cracking down on harmful plastic waste.
As for the international treaty, as Secretary of State, I was involved in negotiating the commitments and encouraging other countries to be ambitious. As far as I am aware, the negotiations have made good progress and are still on track on the expected timeline.