The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth, and amendment 3 in the name of Paul Davies.

The next item, therefore, is the debate on the circular economy, and I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs to move the motion—Lesley Griffiths.

Motion NDM6531 Jane Hutt

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes progress made to date in Wales in becoming the UK's leading nation in municipal recycling and third nation in the world.

2. Supports the intention to develop a more circular economy for Wales, including considering the case for:

a) an 80% municipal recycling target; and

b) a 50% reduction target for food waste.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. Wales, at 64 per cent, has the highest municipal recycling rate in the United Kingdom. We are a long way ahead of the other UK nations and within a few percentage points of the best in the world. We’ve made great advances in sustainable waste management and must use this as a springboard for further development of the circular economy in Wales.

A circular economy is one where materials can be productively used again and again, creating added value and associated multiple benefits. Recent studies by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, WRAP and the Green Alliance have identified potential savings and income of more than £2 billion each year to the Welsh economy and up to 30,000 new jobs through the development of a more circular economy. We need to place much more value on the resources we all too often take for granted, reduce what we use, and wherever possible keep materials and goods in use for longer. We must move away from the throwaway culture we are all too familiar with and encourage behaviours that will help protect our environment. The success we’ve seen in Wales is largely due to the clarity and direction of the national waste strategy for Wales towards zero waste. I want to continue to work closely with all interested parties, from the citizens of Wales to local authorities, business and the third and public sectors to ensure progress towards our ambitious targets is maintained. Achieving a more circular economy is a challenging task that involves all parts of the supply and waste management chain.

Last year, we asked WRAP to set up a circular economy taskforce for Wales, involving representatives from manufacturers, retailers, local authorities and the waste industry. Their initial focus has been on plastics, where in Wales we have a significant number of diverse manufacturing companies producing moulded plastic products and components. WRAP is working with stakeholders to produce a plastics route-map with the aim of creating a better market for recycled plastic in products made in Wales. This will help create jobs in Wales and reduce our reliance on overseas markets for waste plastic.

The Welsh Government has allocated capital funding of £6.5 million to develop a significant number of small-scale capital projects to assist SMEs in making the transformation towards a circular economy approach. We need to see more circular economy business models developed in Wales. Through procurement activities, the Welsh Government and the public sector can lead by example by saving money as a result of sustainable product selection, waste prevention, reuse and recycling. The Welsh Government is working with public sector bodies to drive cost-effective, sustainable outcomes in Welsh businesses in the public sector supply chain, so they can develop more sustainable products and services, using resources more efficiently, including products using high recycled content, designed for reuse, ease of repair, disassembly and recycling.

An excellent example of the power of public sector procurement can be seen in the case study produced by WRAP Cymru on the use of remanufactured furniture by Public Health Wales when they moved to a single central office in Cardiff. All of over 2,000 items of furniture were either reused or remanufactured using a third sector organisation, yielding significant social benefits as well as environmental ones.

I’m committed to driving forward policies that will deliver on a more circular economy for Wales and will be introducing additional measures to increase resource efficiency in Wales. We are developing a route-map for a more resource-efficient economy, building on our success in recycling and reducing the environmental impacts of production and consumption. This will be published for consultation in July 2018. I’m committed to a range of ideas, including proposals for legislation, setting higher recycling targets and setting new reduction targets. As part of the route-map, I intend to consult on an 80 per cent municipal waste recycling target for 2030, and a 50 per cent food waste reduction target by 2025. Data shows that despite our excellent recycling rate, there is still, on average, as much as half of the residual black bag waste put out by householders that is easily recyclable. This consists of the commonly recycled materials such as glass, paper, cardboard, metal cans, plastic and food waste. An 80 per cent recycling rate should be achievable, providing everyone plays their full part in recycling.

I’m sure all of us would agree that the amount of food wasted is unacceptable. Wasted food is also applying unnecessary pressures on our environment and on our limited natural resources. We must redouble our efforts and play our full part in challenging food waste, building on the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign and working more through the food supply chain through the Courtauld 2025 agreement.

Unfortunately, there is still a great deal of packaging that is difficult or impossible to recycle. Packaging is also a major component of the litter that blights our public spaces, land, coasts and seas. I’ve commissioned an extended producer responsibility study on food and drink packaging to look at measures to prevent waste, increase recycling and reduce litter on the ground and in our seas. It will investigate how producers and retailers may share more evenly the financial burdens of managing waste. A review of deposit-return schemes will also be included in the study. As part of the budget settlement, we have announced funding to support pilots to test the feasibility of deposit schemes for recycling. This will help inform the evidence base on extended producer responsibility.

Our tax-raising powers are an important part of new policy development. The recently published tax policy framework and work plan included a commitment to consider the case for introducing new taxes in Wales, exploring the policy and administrative elements and the mechanism for change. The devolution of tax powers provides a range of opportunities for the Welsh Government to develop a Welsh approach to taxation, and presents an opportunity to build on Wales’s leading role in recycling and waste reduction. Disposable plastic taxes in particular received public and stakeholder support during the debate on new taxes, highlighted most recently by a campaign and petition launched by Greenpeace to introduce a tax on plastics.

Will the Minister give way?

Yes, certainly.

I’m particularly interested in what she’s just said about a disposable plastics tax; as she may be aware, that was actually in Plaid Cymru’s manifesto and that’s the one of the four taxes that we particularly want to promote at this stage. But does she also bear in mind that there might be greater support amongst the Welsh public for a new tax if it was clearly designed to change people’s habits, rather than simply raise money for Welsh Government?

Yes, I think that is something, certainly, that we can consider. As I said, you’ll be aware that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government produced that shortlist of possible taxes, and that’s one of them. So we are going to be exploring options for a tax or a levy on disposable plastics. So that’s part of the conversation that we can be having.

Just turning now to Brexit, obviously we recognise as a Government that we will need a Bill to provide clarity and certainty for citizens and businesses as Brexit takes effect, going forward. And we accept there will be a need to make some amendments so the existing law is workable in the new context of the UK being outside the EU. We’ve made it repeatedly clear that any Bill brought forward must respect the devolution settlements and, as colleagues are aware, the First Minister has made it very clear that the current drafting of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill places significant new constraints on the Assembly’s ability to legislate effectively after Brexit on matters that are currently dealt with in Brussels. I think this is particularly the case for resource efficiency and recycling targets, and we’ve absolutely proven that setting them in Welsh legislation achieves the necessary results. As I said at the outset, we’re doing so much better than the other UK countries in this regard.

So, in conclusion, Llywydd, a more resource-efficient economy will help make our businesses more resilient and competitive in the future. It will create jobs, it will bring more social and environmental benefits, and we are absolutely committed to taking action to achieve this, and I look forward to Members’ contributions.

I have selected the five amendments to the motion, and I call on Simon Thomas to move amendments 1, 2, 4 and 5, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Amendment 1—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point after point 1, and renumber accordingly:

Congratulates Ceredigion Council on remaining the best performing council on recycling.

Amendment 2—Rhun ap Iorwerth

In point 2 delete all after 'the case for' and replace with:

'a target of achieving zero waste by 2030.'

Amendment 4—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Welcomes the budget agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru to further increase recycling rates through piloting a deposit-return scheme.

Amendment 5—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Supports the proposal to decrease residual waste levels through introducing a tax on non-reusable and non-recyclable plastics.

Amendments 1, 2, 4 and 5 moved.

Thank you, Llywydd, and I move those amendments.

May I welcome the fact that we are discussing a success in this area and the fact that the Government has ambition and wants to raise recycling levels even more and move towards a no-waste economy? Plaid Cymru’s amendments turn around the fact that although there is ambition, there’s always room for greater ambition in my view.

Given that Ceredigion is the best performing council on recycling at the moment and is already reaching 70 per cent recycling, then setting 80 per cent for everyone by 2030 isn’t challenging enough, in my view. Therefore, Plaid Cymru is of the view that we should set a target by 2030 of a zero-waste economy, moving everyone along with the best performing to that objective. But I welcome the fact that there is at least some progress and a strong message conveyed by Government that they do want to increase the targets for those few authorities in Wales that are only just getting the targets at the moment.

Will you take an intervention?

Indeed.

Would you not accept that zero is impossible if you’ve got incineration, because incineration will always end up with residual waste?

I’ll come to incineration later on in my remarks. Hopefully, I’ll address some of that in a moment.

Rwyf hefyd yn meddwl bod yna gyfle i ddefnyddio’r pwerau trethu newydd fel mae’r Ysgrifennydd Cabinet newydd ei grybwyll. Rwy’n siomedig, a dweud y gwir, gyda geiriad y gwelliant gan y blaid Dorïaidd yn y cyd-destun yma. Os edrychwch chi ar yr ychydig o wledydd sydd yn ailgylchu plastig yn well na ni—gwledydd megis yr Almaen, Norwy, Sweden a Ffindir—mae gan bob un ohonyn nhw gynllun dychwelyd blaendal. Felly, nid yw’n wir i ddweud bod cynllun o’r fath rywsut yn tanseilio ailgylchu. Wrth gwrs, mae’n rhaid i ni ystyried, gydag ailgylchu o’r stepen drws fel sydd gyda ni yng Nghymru, efallai y byddai yna effeithiau o gynllun blaendal yn y cyd-destun hwnnw. Ond yr ateb, wrth gwrs, yw cynllun peilot, a dyna beth sydd wedi cael ei gytuno rhwng Plaid Cymru a’r Llywodraeth yn y cytundeb ar y gyllideb, ac rwy’n edrych ymlaen at drafod manylion y cynllun peilot hwnnw gyda’r Ysgrifennydd Cabinet maes o law, a chlywed mwy o fanylion felly yn y Cynulliad. Rwy’n gobeithio ar ddiwedd y dydd heddiw y bydd gyda ni o leiaf rhyw ddealltwriaeth o’r ffordd ymlaen ar hynny.

Mae gwelliant Plaid Cymru, gyda llaw, yn benagored o ran pa fath o gynllun dychwelyd blaendal y byddwn yn gallu ei weld yng Nghymru o safbwynt y deunydd a fydd yn cael ei ailgylchu. Mae’n bwysig ein bod ni yn gweld beth sydd yn cael ei ddefnyddio eisoes gan rai cwmnïau. Mae Pret a Manger, Veggie Pret ac Asda hyd yn oed yn dechrau sôn am sut y gallan nhw ddychwelyd cynnyrch. Mae hyd yn oed cwmnïau mawr fel Coca-Cola wedi newid eu meddyliau ynglŷn â chynllun blaendal a chynllun dychwelyd.

Mae’r ail ran o hwn, wrth gwrs, yn ein galluogi ni i edrych ar drethi newydd, a’r posibilrwydd o gael treth ar bolystyren, fel mae Plaid Cymru wedi sôn amdano. I fynd nôl i ryw gyffwrdd â’r pwynt mae Mike Hedges newydd ei wneud: mae rhai deunyddiau nad oes modd eu hailgylchu, fydd yn y pen draw naill ai yn mynd i dirlenwi neu’n cael eu llosgi. A’r ateb fanna, wrth gwrs, yw ceisio cael defnydd gwell o’r deunyddiau yna neu hyd yn oed geisio gwthio’r deunyddiau yna allan o’r gadwyn fwyd yn benodol, gan ddefnyddio dulliau trethiannol. Felly, rwy’n gweld bod y posibilrwydd o dreth ar blastig, sydd wedi cael ei chrybwyll fel un o’r pedwar posibl gan y Llywodraeth, yn rhywbeth y byddwn ni ym Mhlaid Cymru am ei gefnogi ar hyn o bryd, a dyna ein dewis ni o dreth, i fod yn gwbl glir wrth y rheini yn y Siambr yma. Y rheswm am hynny, wrth gwrs, yw ei fod yn ein maniffesto ni, ein bod wedi bod yn gwneud gwaith arno, fy mod i wedi gwneud cynnig deddfwriaethol ond rhyw bum mis yn ôl yn y Senedd hon a chael cefnogaeth i’r cysyniad o’r ffordd yma o weithio yn ogystal, gan fod treth o’r fath yn perswadio pobl naill ai i ddefnyddio llai o blastig neu, wrth gwrs, drwy osod pris ar blastig na ellir ei ailgylchu, mae’n perswadio cwmnïau i fuddsoddi mewn deunyddiau compostadwy neu ddeunyddiau amgen sy’n gallu cael eu hailgylchu. Drwy hynny, rydym yn torri lawr ar faint o blastig sydd yn ein hamgylchedd ni. Mae’n arswydus, gan fod archwiliad gan swyddfa Llywodraeth y Deyrnas Gyfunol ar wyddoniaeth ei hunan wedi canfod bod tua 70 y cant o’r holl wastraff sydd yn y môr bellach wedi cael ei wneud o blastig.

I did promise to briefly touch on incineration, which I’ll do in conclusion. There is a role for incineration in terms of agricultural forestry biomass for energy purposes, and so forth, but Plaid Cymru is very clear that large-scale incineration of waste is actually against the principles of a circular economy. In that regard, I hope that the Government bears in mind developments such as the Barry incinerator and really works against such proposals, and in favour of a genuine circular economy.

I call on David Melding to move amendment 3, tabled in the name of Paul Davies. David Melding.

Amendment 3—Paul Davies

Add as new point at end of motion:

Notes the significant impact that a bottle deposit return scheme could have in helping to hit Wales's recycling targets.

Amendment 3 moved.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and I’m pleased to move amendment 3 in the name of Paul Davies. It is a notable feat that Wales is a leading nation in global efforts to increase recycling rates, and this is a credit to the work and determination of the Welsh Government, the National Assembly, local councils and, indeed, people across Wales who have enthusiastically responded to this challenge. I also welcome point 2 of this motion with regard to the environmental benefits that a circular economy can bring to Wales. This is a concept that we support. And I think it’s unanswerable if we want to meet these ambitious targets, as mentioned in the motion. It’s crucial that we should maximise the value of our resources beyond the life of a product. I’m glad that the circular economy aspect has been emphasised today, because the Welsh Conservatives feel strongly about this and, indeed, it’s been previously championed by my colleague Darren Millar in a previous debate on waste and recycling in March.

I would like to run through the amendments, because they’re all fairly policy-heavy and, I think, deserve a response. We’ll be supporting amendment 1 to the motion and offer our congratulations to Ceredigion council, who are leading the way as the best-performing council in Wales. I think it’s only fair that we commend the efforts of local authorities. We often criticise them. So, if we are calling them out when we think their performance is poor, I think we should then commend when they are exhibiting excellence. I’m glad that, in my region, South Wales Central, two of the three local authorities are performing above the average and I’m disappointed that the third, Cardiff, is a little below the average, and I will be taking that matter up with them to see what they’re going to do to raise their performance.

Unfortunately, Presiding Officer, amendment 2 is not so straightforward and, for that reason, we will abstain on this particular amendment. Whilst I think it’s bold and ambitious, I do believe that it may be a little impractical, if that’s not an impolite way of putting it. When the Government announced their target for reducing food waste by 50 per cent by 2025, there was agreement across the majority of stakeholders and across the majority of political parties here, that this was extremely ambitious. To offer some comparisons, the EU recently agreed to halve food waste by 2030; I understand the USA has a similar goal. Additionally, Scotland, which led the way in the UK in introducing a food waste target, actually set it at a 33 per cent reduction by 2025, so we are heading for a more ambitious target as it is. So, I’m not sure that it is going to be achievable and therefore is an appropriate thing to establish now.

We will be supporting amendment 4, as it echoes our own amendment. I fear Simon thought I was damming the concept with faint praise. I’m not at all. I think some form of deposit scheme is required and the reason I phrased it as I did is that there’s actually a consultation going on and whilst we’ve suddenly now had this pilot pop up as a result of your obviously great negotiating skills with the budget, this has kind of disturbed the policy environment a little bit. But, again, you know—

It moved it on.

If that moves things on, then maybe that’s to the good after all. In supporting amendment 4, we don’t commend in any way the budget deals that have gone on. I’ve no idea what the trade-offs have been, so I’m not going to get involved in any of that.

We’ll be opposing amendment 5 really because, whilst we accept the need to reduce non-reusable and non-recyclable plastics—and in any significant waste reduction strategy that is needed—I’m not sure a tax is the best way. There are all sorts of practicalities. Now, this is not me just being awkward. I think banning some products is, frankly, a more coherent approach. Now, it may take a UK approach post Brexit to do that, but some materials are not really in our interests now in terms of their use in the food industry, particularly the takeaway food industry. But I think the problem with a tax is that it would have to be quite high to be effective and, if it’s fairly slight, given the convenience of polystyrene, I’m not sure it would put off customers. So, for that reason, I’m not sure it would be effective. There are also problems as polystyrene is technically recyclable. So, the definitions that you’d need in some of these things, I think, need a lot of attention as well. So, for that reason, we’re not going to support it.

Joyce Watson took the Chair.

I don’t have time to elaborate our enthusiasm for a deposit scheme, but we will be very interested in what’s happening now with the consultation. Perhaps the Minister is going to be able to say something about that in the wind-up. And, also, how the pilot scheme’s going to be conducted—I’d appreciate it if she’d give more details or write to me on that. Again, if it’s a robust and useful way forward, then we’ll be happy to see that, but, at the minute, it kind of has popped out of thin air when there was a general consultation going on anyway.

However, I want to end on an enthusiastic note and say there’s been real progress here. It’s nice to see Wales as a leader in some areas, and I think, as a responsible opposition, we should acknowledge good practice where we see it.

I’m delighted to see the pilot of the bottle deposit scheme in this year’s budget. I think that’s completely excellent, enabling us to understand the number of miles that may need to be travelled to get the containers back to the factory and to understand the process to make sure that it really is sustainable. It can’t come too soon, because David Attenborough has, once again, made a plea to the world to do something about the number of plastics that are ending up in the ocean and killing off the wildlife in parts of the world that we are never going to visit. It is completely deplorable that we’ve been so wasteful of our planet’s resources in allowing this to happen.

I think that the 80 per cent municipal recycling target is ambitious but doable, but it does require a renewed effort by some local authorities. Cardiff, for example, my own local authority, is bouncing along the bottom at 58 per cent and that isn’t good enough. It’s partly an attitude of mind, that it’s not robust enough in pushing forward the education campaign that’s needed with all our citizens, not just those who are already committed to this process. I’ve been campaigning for weeks now to get recycling bins reinstated into a few blocks of flats in my constituency and it simply hasn’t happened. There’s no way that people can be doing the right thing by putting their bags of green waste separately from the residual waste, and then not having an appropriate place to deposit them. If they then end up in the landfill site, then that is a completely hopeless approach, and, obviously, demoralises people. So, that has got to change, and we need to ensure that all our citizens are engaged in this process, and not just those who are most enthusiastic about it.

Similarly, we simply can’t justify throwing away a third of all the food produced in this country. It’s completely grotesque in a world where many, many people are going hungry, both in this country and in other parts of the world. This is absolutely not a sustainable or responsible practice and so we all need to do our bit to ensure that we are not ordering more than we need, that we are using the food that we’ve got in our fridges, and, if not, we need to be ensuring that we’re giving it away to people who can use it more effectively than we can. So, I think the targets are great, but I think that there’s no room for complacency and we need to ensure that all citizens are engaged in this process.

UKIP fully supports and applauds the Welsh Government’s strategies on recycling in Wales, and acknowledges the outstanding progress made so far.

There is, of course, more to do if we are to achieve the ambitious target set for the next few years. Given that the Welsh public has, to a great extent, taken on board the whole concept of recycling, is it now time that the Welsh Government began to concentrate on the companies that produce much of the non-recyclable waste, blister packs and cellophane packaging being some of the biggest culprits? I believe that many in this Chamber share my frustration at the amount of waste we have to commit to the landfill bin because the items are deemed non-recyclable.

Whilst I appreciate that much of this packaging is done outside Wales, particularly in the supply of supermarket chains, there are many companies within Wales that now supply a sizeable proportion of goods to supermarkets and surely it is in the capability of the Welsh Government to encourage the supermarkets themselves to eliminate packaging as much as possible.

I would echo many in this house who advocate deposit-returnable items, and think that the Welsh Government could go so far as opening special facilities that would offer deposit-return to the public at large, effectively becoming additional collection points to the retail trade. One word of caution here, however, is the deposit would have to be high enough to encourage the return without disparaging the sale itself. If it were to impact on sales, the retail trade would be far less likely to support this scheme.

One area not specifically covered by the Cabinet Secretary, but, in considering the circular economy, we cannot ignore, and that is the motor car, which in itself is a major contributor to waste if it is not handled properly. All too often, the recycling of car trade components has been carried out in a haphazard manner by small-scale scrap facilities that do not take a holistic approach to breaking cars. I would call upon the Welsh Government to look favourably on the establishment of purpose-built facilities that would address all the aspects of car dismantling, including the proper disposal of oils and braking fluids, even to the extent of funding their development.

Can I make one other point in closing? I do not think the travelling fraternity has received proper recognition for the contribution they have made to recycling over many decades, long before recycling became a fashionable item, and that they continue to make that valuable contribution to this present day.

In the second half of the twentieth century, we became a throwaway society. My grandmother, who was born in the nineteenth century, and lived with an unemployed husband during the 1930s, was often horrified by the general wastefulness of society at that time—items that were working, and nothing wrong them, often thrown away and taken to landfill because they had been replaced. Sometimes, something would go out of fashion and be sent via the refuse collection service to the local landfill site—not that there was anything wrong with it, just no longer fashionable. It can be identified as the time the refuse collection service stopped being called the ash carts, because they used to collect ash from coal fires, and just started dealing with large quantities of refuse.

I also remember deposits being charged on pop bottles. It’s amazing how a few pennies can affect behaviour. The plastic bag levy: it might only be 5p, but it’s had a massive effect on behaviour. No longer do you see plastic bags blowing in large numbers across parks and sports pitches, and I believe that a return to a deposit on bottles would have exactly the same effect on recycling. Wales has made huge strides in recycling over recent years. It is the leading UK nation in terms of municipal recycling—thank you, local authorities—currently third in the world. More, however, can be done.

First, I’m going to turn to metals. All metals should be and can be recycled. I’m sure that, however, metals including gold and rare earths are finding their way into landfill in Wales. Rapid technology change, low initial cost—

Will the Member give way?

Please.

Thank you, Mike. I’m sure you’d agree with me, wouldn’t you? I’m very concerned about the return of mobility equipment when people have had operations in hospital. I know of two patients recently where, when they phoned up to say, ‘Can we return our equipment?’ ‘No, they’re no use to us. No, we can’t reuse them; just take them to your local tip’. I find that a complete and utter waste of money. I’ve raised it with the Cabinet Secretary, with the local authority, and I don’t know if you can help in some way, but we’re talking about wheelchairs, hundreds and hundreds of pounds’ worth of equipment, that is finding its way into landfill.

I agree with you entirely. I don’t see why these things can’t be refurbished, and I think that it’s unfortunate there are still some people who have this throwaway mentality. We’ve had rapid technology changes. The mobile phone—I know that’s interrupted this session on several occasions this afternoon. That contains gold, heavy metals—in fact 70 per cent of the heavy metals in landfill come from discarded electronics, while it only makes up 2 per cent of America’s landfill; I assume Britain will not be dissimilar. The value of precious metals inside a mobile phone are worth around 75 cents in America, which means going on for £1 here, and it’s about 18 cents to take them out. There’s a huge saving in doing it, but far too many electronic devices end up being put into landfill. In mobile phones there’s gold, there’s rare earth metals, and yet they’re still being thrown away without being recycled. No metal or product including metals should be ever be thrown away. We have a finite amount of metal in the earth’s crust. The more we recycle, the less we need to extract and the less damage to the environment. I think we are likely in the future to see the mining of old refuse tips to access metals and other items previously discarded.

Turning to food, in a world where many are going hungry, in a country where people are having to go to food banks, where children would have gone hungry in my constituency during the summer if it had not been for the action of Faith in Families and Carolyn Harris MP in providing meals, we are still throwing food away. The supermarkets, of course, must take some of the blame for food waste. Giant bags and buy-one-get-one-free offers promote over-purchase and waste. We need to cut down on food waste: things such as buying less, avoiding offers that would provide you with more than you can use, cook and freeze, creating smoothies and creating soups.

It’s not only the waste of food; there is a cost to the environment and there’s a cost to the purchaser as well. We just cannot afford to keep on throwing food away. There are people who are going hungry because we are doing it. Huge progress has been made in Wales. We need to continue making this progress. I’ll just finally end with: well done local councils in Wales for what you’re doing with recycling.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs to reply to the debate.

Thank you very much, Chair, and I thank Members for partaking in this debate. I think it was very good to have such a constructive debate, and I think, as David Melding said, it’s fantastic that we are third in the world in our recycling, but I want to be first in the world. I want to make sure that we beat Germany and Singapore. We have invested over £600 million in local authority recycling services through the sustainable waste management grant, and the fact that we have achieved this position of being third in the world is down to Welsh Government working with local authorities, but of course, it is down to the people of Wales who are so keen to recycle. However, we know there are a group of people that just seem to refuse to do so, and that’s one aspect of work that we will be continuing to do with local authorities.

Jenny Rathbone mentioned food waste, and I think it is absolutely appalling that we do waste so much food. If we look at the average household in Wales, they throw away food worth £480 a year, so that equates to £600 million across Wales as a whole. We really need to value the food that we buy, and we mustn’t recklessly throw it away. I mentioned that we will be bringing forward the target of halving food waste in Wales by 2025. I think that is bold and ambitious, and I think it’s also pragmatic and realistic, so I will be consulting as part of the refresh of our waste strategy that I plan to do next year.

Several Members mentioned the deposit-return schemes, and we have agreed to have this pilot scheme as part of our budget settlement. We’ve put £0.5 million aside to do that. We haven’t worked up the details yet. As Simon said, that will be part of the work that we do, and I will be happy not just to let David Melding know, but obviously all Members, when we’ve brought forward our ideas.

Alongside that, I mentioned I was doing an extended producer responsibility study. So, that was part of the scheme but we are now going to have a pilot as part of the budget settlement. I am aware of calls for the deposit-return scheme to be introduced. As a child of the 1960s, like Mike Hedges, I remember it very well, but I think it’s absolutely important that we make sure that there aren’t perverse or unintended outcomes in relation to having such a scheme, because we do have the best recycling service in the UK and already 75 per cent of plastic bottles in Wales are being recycled. So, I think it’s very important that we don’t have those perverse outcomes.

We’ve also got to consider the financial impacts of a deposit on household shopping bills. We know, for example, that a great deal of people now shop online, so it’s really important that we make sure that we help those people that cannot easily redeem such a bottle for a deposit in a shop. David Melding queried about polystyrene. It is recyclable and I’m having discussions with well-known food outlets and businesses. Again, it’s going to be part of the EPR study that we’re going to look at recycling polystyrene.

If I can just turn to the motion, obviously I’m asking Assembly Members to support the motion. Looking at the amendments, I’m accepting 1, 3, 4 and 5. I particularly want to pay tribute to Ceredigion on being the top recycling county in Wales, at 70 per cent. I’m asking Members to reject amendment 2 because there is already an evidence-based target for zero waste for that milestone of 2050 in our waste strategy, ‘Towards Zero Waste’. The 80 per cent target and the 50 per cent target that I referred to are specific new targets that aren’t already in ‘Towards Zero Waste’. To get to that zero waste by 2050 will require a huge amount of effort to achieve that, and we will have to bring in interim measures. One of the interim measures that we have looked at is working with local authorities to develop 25-year contracts for energy recovery of non-recyclable waste.

The Llywydd took the Chair.

So, in conclusion, Llywydd, I’d just like to thank Members again for their contributions. I think the next few years are going to be really exciting. As I say, I want to be best in the world. I’m sure that’s shared by all Members, as we make that further progress on our resource efficiency and circular economy journey. I’m really pleased to have had this debate today. Thank you.

The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? Amendment 1 is therefore agreed, in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Amendment 1 agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

The proposal is to agree amendment 2. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I will defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time. 

Unless three Members wish for the bell to be rung, I will proceed directly to voting time.