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.