FOR PITY’S SAKE, GET ON WITH IT!
MPs last night urgently demanded a bottle deposit scheme on the tenth anniversary of the Daily Mail’s campaign against ‘plastic poison’. They warned ministers that every day of delay meant another 700,000 disposable containers littering the streets. The MPs also called for cafes to be made to offer free tap water to customers using reusable bottles. And they said factories and stores should pay more to cover the cost of dealing with wasteful packaging.
Boris Johnson will announce today that he is banning throwaway plastic from the Foreign Office and British embassies by 2020. Praising the Mail’s reporting, he said government must now set an example.
This newspaper’s Banish the Bags campaign led to a 5p levy on carriers and exposed the scourge of plastic pollution. A huge shift in public and political attitudes has seen:
The number of plastic bags handed out at tills fall by 7billion a year;
The introduction of a world-leading
ban on the use of plastic microbeads in body scrubs and beauty products;
Environment Secretary Michael Gove promising a ban on plastic straws;
Coffee shops offering up to 50p to help customers switch from throwaway cups.
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson will announce today that single-use plastic such as cutlery will be banned from FO offices in the UK by the end of this year. They will also be banned from embassies and high commissions around the world by 2020.
Last night he said: ‘It is time for the world to truly wake up to the damage being done to the environment, and especially by the sheer volume of plastic that is dumped in our oceans. While we are moving forward – thanks in no small part to the Daily Mail’s anti-plastic campaign – more must be done if we are finally going to end the scourge of plastic waste.’
Despite the progress, MPs from all parties on the Commons environmental audit committee yesterday accused the Government of dragging its feet in the next stage of the battle against plastic. They had published a report before Christmas that included a raft of recommendations.
It concluded: ‘The UK uses 38.5million plastic bottles every day, of which 15million are not recycled; 700,000 plastic bottles are littered every day, causing damage to natural habitats and human wellbeing.
‘Plastic bottle waste is not simply a recycling or environmental issue; it is a social issue with considerable direct and indirect costs for taxpayers through litter picking and healthcare.’
The committee called for a deposit and return scheme on plastic bottles, mirroring successful schemes elsewhere.
Yesterday, however, the Environment Department (Defra) published a series of bland, non-committal, responses, triggering accusations that ministers are delaying meaningful action. Officials said they were still awaiting the results of an investigation into bottle deposit schemes. And they said that ministers would ‘need to consider how a deposit return scheme or other behavioural incentives would fit with other planned work’.
The committee’s chairman, Mary Creagh, condemned the response, saying: ‘The Government needs to do much more to combat plastic pollution. Every day it delays another 700,000 plastic bottles end up in our streets. This delay is unacceptable.’
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, parts of the US, Canada and Australia all operate deposit schemes on drinks containers, achieving collection and recycling rates of up to 90 per cent. The idea is supported by the vast majority of Britons as well as Coca-Cola, Tesco and the Scottish government.
Ministers have written to retailers, coffee shops and rail station operators to encourage them to provide free drinking water.
But Miss Creagh said: ‘Encouraging businesses to provide water refills is a positive step, but the Government should go further and make it a legal requirement for all premises that serve food or drink to provide drinking water on request.
‘We heard no evidence from the water industry about plans to create a network of refill points.’
The Labour MP also called for big levies on firms using packaging that is difficult to recycle – an appeal made in her committee’s report. In its response to the committee, the Government had said it wanted to ‘encourage consumers to take more responsibility’. Greenpeace UK criticised the Government’s stance yesterday.
‘This sounds like trying to manage expectations before doing significantly less than is necessary – we hope this isn’t the case,’ said oceans campaigner Elena Polisano. ‘The damage to our oceans and the widespread contamination of our environment by plastics is going to keep getting more and more obvious until we change our approach to disposable plastic.’
A Defra spokesman insisted the Government was leading the world in tackling plastic and promised a decision on a bottle deposit scheme in due course.
He added: ‘We will be working with industry to reform our packaging waste regulations, to incentivise producers to take greater responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products.’