5. 4. Statement: Building on our Recycling Success for a Circular Economy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:56 pm on 14 June 2016.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:56, 14 June 2016

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank Nathan Gill for his question, although I think it was a little bit sour. It was a shame that that was the last question to end what I think has been a really positive statement. You know, the statistics don’t back up what you’re saying. I don’t think we’ve had to use carrots and sticks. I really think people have engaged with this. I do accept that we’ve reached, with 58 or 59 per cent, a bit of a plateau and, to get to that 70 per cent, we are going to have to think about different things, about how we get that 50 per cent out of the residual waste into the recycling boxes. But, you know, every local authority is engaging in the way that you referred to in Anglesey and Conwy, not just those two local authorities. Unfortunately, we have 22 local authorities, and sometimes—I’m not saying we have 22 examples of how we do it, but, again, let’s look at best practice, let’s make sure that we get that best practice around Wales to ensure that we do reach those targets. They are ambitious, but I do think they are achievable and, as I mentioned in a previous answer, we chose to have those targets; we chose for Wales to be a high recycling nation. Thank you.