Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Plastic and its impact on our environment is an issue of huge public interest now. In 1950, 1.5 million tonnes of plastics were produced across the world. It is now more than 320 million tonnes per annum, and half of all plastics produced since 1950 have been produced over the past decade alone.

Plastic waste is now responsible for some 60 per cent to 90 per cent of waste in our seas; a plastic bottle can last up to 450 years, and plastic waste is detrimental to as many as 100,000 sea species and a million sea birds every year. So, I'm pleased to congratulate the village of Aberporth on becoming a plastic-free community—the first of its kind in Wales. My thanks are to the whole village for coming together to seek alternative ways of providing for citizens and visitors without using unnecessary plastic. It varies from recyclable cups in cafes, using paper straws in the local pub and milk in glass bottle in the village shop. 

In this Assembly, we are discussing a tax on plastics, and I am pleased to have negotiated funding for the consideration of a deposit-return scheme. But the greatest change is to be seen in our communities. New Quay in Ceredigion has followed Aberporth, and around 200 people have been discussing the idea in Aberystwyth recently. I look forward, therefore, Deputy Presiding Officer, eagerly, to see the day when Wales will be free of plastic.