Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has welcomed the announcement of the Government’s new resource and waste strategy by Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Gove today.
The announced measures include:
- Businesses and manufacturers paying the full cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste
- A simplified, consistent and comprehensive set of recycling collections for every household and business, including weekly food waste collections (subject to consultation)
- A deposit return scheme for drinks containers to increase the recycling rate of the 14 billion single-use plastic drinks bottles, 9 billion drinks cans and 5 billion glass bottles used per year
- Tackling illegal movements of waste exports by introducing compulsory electronic tracking of waste and tougher penalties
- Exploring mandatory product guarantees and extended warranties to encourage business to produce products that last longer and drive up the levels of repair and re-use.
Commenting, Steve said:
“Today’s announcement is great news in the drive to live more sustainably.”
“The resource and waste strategy addresses concerns in a number of areas myself and others have been campaigning on.”
“In particular I am delighted to see further confirmation on the deposit return scheme for single-use plastic bottles that I have been working with campaigners including Surfers Against Sewage and Sky Ocean Rescue to achieve.”
“I am pleased that this Government is listening and that change is happening.”
“The devil will be in the detail and I look forward to seeing these plans progress into reality in 2019 and beyond.”
Commenting, Michael Gove said:
“Our strategy sets out how we will go further and faster, to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Together we can move away from being a ‘throw-away’ society, to one that looks at waste as a valuable resource.
“We will cut our reliance on single-use plastics, end confusion over household recycling, tackle the problem of packaging by making polluters pay, and end the economic, environmental and moral scandal that is food waste.
“Through this plan we will cement our place as a world leader in resource efficiency, leaving our environment in a better state than we inherited it.”