The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has called for
a ban on the export of all plastic waste from the UK by 2027 to
reduce the country’s contribution to global plastic waste
pollution.
The ban should be part of a strategy to use less plastic, re-use
more of it, and boost recycling, the committee said in a report –
The price of plastic:
ending the toll of plastic waste – which is published
yesterday, attached above.
An estimated 380 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide
every year. The enduring nature of plastic products – often
designed for single use - has led to a major waste issue,
particularly involving plastic packaging for consumer and
industrial goods.
The UK exports around 60% of the over 2.5 million tonnes of
plastic packaging waste it creates. Turkey is the main
destination for this waste. The committee heard alarming accounts
of British plastic waste being dumped and burned in Turkey,
causing “irreversible and shocking” environmental and human
health impacts.
In light of these accounts, and the pervasive problem of plastic
pollution contaminating the environment, the committee made
various recommendations. In a first step towards a more circular
economy for plastics, the committee recommends restricting the
amount of plastic that can be exported from the UK, then banning
exports completely. The committee also wants the government to
step up the enforcement of existing rules to prevent criminal
gangs illegally exporting and dumping UK-produced waste. The
report said waste crime had become a “low risk, high reward
endeavour”.
The committee also made wider, longer-term recommendations aimed
at reducing the UK’s consumption of plastics, increasing domestic
recycling capacity by boosting investment in the sector, and
creating a more ‘circular economy’ to reduce how much waste the
UK produces. These are essential steps if the ban on exporting
plastic waste is to be deliverable.
The Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee,
Sir MP, said:
“For far too long the UK has been reliant on exporting its
waste overseas and making it someone else’s problem. Plastic
waste originating in our country is being illegally dumped and
burned abroad. The UK must not be a part of this dirty trade and
that’s why we are calling for a total ban on waste plastic
exports.
“To do this we need to reduce how much plastic we use and
consume, invest in greater capacity to reprocess our own waste
and support research into new technologies and materials. If the
UK takes a lead in this, we have the potential to create hundreds
of new jobs and build a multi-billion pound waste management
industry”.
To achieve its goals, the committee made several recommendations
to the government. These included:
- Calling for a ban on all exports of UK plastic waste by the
end of 2027. The government should publish a roadmap on how to
achieve this by March 2023.
- Encouraging greater adherence to the ‘waste hierarchy’ which
stipulates, first, reducing the volume of waste by eliminating
unnecessary use or packaging, then encouraging re-use of it,
before turning to recycling. The committee recommends that
government targets are reformed to more closely follow this waste
hierarchy - and aim for all plastic waste to be recycled, re-used
or composted by 2042.
- Expediting the rollout of ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’,
which will see producers of plastic packaging pay fees on the
packaging products they put on the market. This should
incentivise them to reduce the amount of packaging they produce
and use more easily recyclable materials. The committee also
recommended that the scheme is applied to more producers -
covering all businesses that put more than 1 tonne of packaging
on the market - by 2030.
- Creating a taskforce to explore ways of encouraging greater
uptake of ‘re-use and refill’ schemes – such as those where
customers use their own containers to fill up with a product.
These could include possible charges on single-use products, and
initiatives aimed at encouraging public awareness and uptake of
re-use and refill schemes.
- Confirming its support for the Plastic Packaging Tax which is
applied to products that contain less than 30% of plastic from
recycled sources. This tax is expected to increase the demand for
recycled plastic material – and so encourage investment in the
recycling sector. This 30% level should vary according to the
needs of different sectors and should be increased over time.
- Using some of the income raised by the Extended Producer
Responsibility and Plastic Packaging Tax schemes to invest in
recycling infrastructure and to support research in technologies
that can tackle hard to recycle plastics, such as plastic films.
