The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Efra) is launching an inquiry into plastic food and drink packaging.
The Committee is seeking written submissions to ask what progress have packaging manufacturers, food producers and retailers made in developing and using alternatives to, and reducing consumers’ use of plastic food and drink packaging?
It also wants to know what are the barriers to and opportunities for further innovation, how alternatives to plastic perform compared to plastic food and drink packaging and whether there are food and drink products for which it is essential to use plastic, or for which it is more difficult to develop and use alternatives.
“It is imperative that we find practical ways to protect the environment and reduce the risks posed by increasing plastic pollution. We also hope to highlight how Government action may help to alleviate this significant threat.”
The Committee is also seeking views on what impact will the following two Government proposals have on reducing plastic food and drink packaging?
- a. an extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging to ensure the costs of collection and recycling are borne by those that produce packaging and place it on the market, and
- b. a tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic, to encourage manufacturers to produce more sustainable packaging and create greater demand for recycled material?
Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Neil Parish MP said: “Plastic currently pollutes this country’s soils, rivers and coasts, with millions of tonnes of plastics used in the UK every single year. It has become a global environmental problem. Once plastic packaging becomes waste, most of it does not biodegrade – which damages the environment and affects a range of marine species.
“The Committee is keen to find out what progress has been made in developing and using more environmentally friendly alternatives to plastics and how they perform when compared to plastic food and drink packaging.
“It is imperative that we find practical ways to protect the environment and reduce the risks posed by increasing plastic pollution. We also hope to highlight how Government action may help to alleviate this significant threat.”
Written evidence should be submitted through the Committee’s web portal by midnight on Thursday 2 May.