Extracts from committee stage (Lords) (day 4) of the Environment Bill - June 30
Thursday, 1 July 2021 07:55
Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD): My Lords, I speak
to Amendments 141 and 142 to 145, which are in my name. Amendment
141 relates to the plastic packaging tax which was placed in law by
this year’s Finance Bill and will come into effect next year. The
tax is welcome in principle, but my amendment seeks to probe the
Government on the detail. Manufacturers of innovative compostable
packaging solutions are aghast that the tax makes no distinction
between their products and...Request free trial
(LD): My Lords, I speak to Amendments 141 and 142 to
145, which are in my name. Amendment 141 relates to the plastic packaging tax which was placed
in law by this year’s Finance Bill and will come into effect next
year. The tax is welcome in principle, but my amendment seeks to
probe the Government on the detail. Manufacturers of innovative
compostable packaging solutions are aghast that the tax makes no
distinction between their products and old-fashioned polluting
plastic. Members of the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries
Association have attempted to engage Ministers in Defra and the
Treasury on this point but are hitting a brick wall, since the
Government are interested only in a single threshold —namely, the
amount of a given product that is recycled...
The Minister of State, Department for the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development
Office () (Con):...I turn to Amendment 141. As the noble
Baroness, Lady Bakewell, said at Second Reading:
“We are subsumed by plastic.”—[Official Report, 7/6/21; col.
1297.]
She is right. The Government will implement a new
plastic packaging tax from April
next year, which a number of noble Lords have mentioned, to
encourage greater use of recycled plastic and reduce the use of
virgin plastic. It will incentivise more sustainable, reusable
plastic packaging and stimulate demand for recycled materials. In
addition, we already have a power in the Bill that will enable us
to set charges for any single-use plastic. This includes those made
from bio-based sources or designed to be biodegradable...
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