People should pay a deposit for using plastic bottles in an attempt to protect the seas from plastic pollution, MPs say. The government's Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) also wants free public drinking water fountains.
And it says firms using plastic packaging should pay more for the waste they create. It is now consulting with industry on a deposit scheme for bottles, and charges for single-use plastics.
But the MPs say ministers need to review society's relationship with plastics as a whole.
They propose a sliding scale of taxes on plastic packaging. They want suppliers of hard-to-recycle complex plastics to be charged most and firms using simple easy-to-recycle packages to pay least.'Planetary crisis' The MPs are trying to tackle the rising tide of plastic waste in the ocean, which has been described by UN Oceans Chief Lisa Svensson as a 'planetary crisis'. EAC Chair Mary Creagh MP said the current levy on plastics producers only raised a fraction of the cost of dealing with plastic waste. "Packaging producers don't currently have to bear the full financial burden of recycling their packaging," she said.
"By reforming charges, the government can ensure that producers and retailers will have financial incentives to design packaging that is easily recyclable - or face higher compliance costs."The committee also proposes a minimum 50% recycled plastic content in plastic bottles to stimulate the recycled plastics market.
No comments:
Post a Comment