Gove under fire for ‘lack of urgency’ over scheme to slash plastic bottle waste

THE GOVERNMENT is facing criticism over a “lack of urgency” in efforts to bring in a deposit return scheme for drinks bottles to reduce plastic waste.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has told the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee that he hoped environmental legislation, including the scheme, could be introduced in 2019 and become law by 2020.

In March, he confirmed that ministers would bring in the scheme, under which consumers will pay a deposit on bottles and cans which is repaid when they hand them in for recycling, subject to consultation. The move aims to boost recycling rates and cut litter, and comes amid increasing concern over the issue of single use plastic waste, much of which ends up as rubbish polluting the countryside and oceans.

While he said he hoped the law would be in place by 2020, Mr Gove told the committee that “if there’s an alternative legislative vehicle that we could use before then, I’m absolutely open to that happening”.

The committee’s chairwoman and Wakefield MP, Mary Creagh, said: “It is disappointing that having announced the deposit return scheme last year, the Government will not be bringing this vital part of tackling plastic waste until 2020 at the earliest.”

But she welcomed Mr Gove’s commitment to a new environmental protection act and a strong new environmental oversight body, as the UK leaves the European Union.

Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: “With a truckload more plastic entering our oceans every minute, we can’t afford for the Government to get bogged down in unnecessarily protracted processes.”

During the hearing on the Government’s long-term environment plan, Mr Gove also gave his support to efforts to secure the world’s largest protected area, in Antarctica, which he described as “one of the most precious places on the planet”.