Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:26 pm on 8 May 2018.
I thank the Member for her contribution there, and I think you're right to raise—. You raise some really interesting points that we'll take away in terms of water fountains and our approach to that. And also, actually, I think, what I said before, we'll retain that flexibility—look at and explore the potential of DRS or single-use plastic tax at a UK level, because we know that that's less complex and less complicated for both consumers and businesses, but I've made it clear from the outset that that is the direction of travel, but we'll always retain that option in terms of if we are in a position where we would need to do something ourselves Wales-wide.
The Member mentioned headlines, and, you know, there are announcements, but it's action that makes the real difference. I know that people roll their eyes when I keep saying about our record, but I think we should recognise too that we do come at this from a very good starting point to perhaps some of our colleagues elsewhere in the UK in terms of the point where we're at of our recycling. But, nonetheless, we know that we want to take action to tackle single-use plastics. We know that's in our environmental and economic interest as well.
I've actually seen on social media the plastic-free Rhiwbina initiative, and I just want to congratulate your constituent on the work that they're doing to get that off the ground. It sounds a great idea to sign up kind of community-wide champions to take that message forward. Because, what I saw when I visited Natural Weigh last week was that they'd got the idea from something else they'd seen online, and now they're offering advice to others in Wales to try and do the same thing as well. One of the things I hope to do during—. I think the community aspect in that action is a real driver, a real powerful force for change, and I think the message coming from the public, in some ways, is probably far more powerful than coming from politicians. One of the things I'm keen to do in the summer recess is to visit a number of communities and places who are taking their own actions. So, perhaps, if the Member would like to write to me, we can see if we could factor in doing something in Rhiwbina as well.