I welcome the statement from the Minister this afternoon. I welcome the still very high rate of recycling form the local authorities, and I do accept that getting it that bit further now is going to be that much more difficult, so I'm pleased that the Minister is so determined to drive this forward. I think it's already been raised how important it is to have the public on your side, and I'd like to thank the Minister for visiting us in Rhiwbina, where the constituents are very enthusiastic about recycling, stopping waste and the circular economy—in particular, the children. A constituent in Rhiwbina, as the Minister knows, started an initiative that I have backed, along with Cardiff North MP Anna McMorrin, to talk to local businesses about reducing their use of single-use plastic items such as straws and take-away coffee cups. That is something that we've also launched now in Old St Mellons last week, and we are going to move on to Pontprennau. I wonder if the Minister could comment on the importance of that interaction between politicians, who are making the laws, but also meeting the public and meeting the children, in order to take these sorts of issue forward.

It is very important, as many people have said today, to recognise that recycling is only one bit of the issue, and reducing waste is very important, especially in packaging. I was thinking about this when I went shopping on the weekend in the Riverside farmers' market, which of course celebrated 20 years this weekend and is one of the really successful farmers' markets. Of course, you buy the fruit and you buy—well, you buy vegetables mainly—and, of course, there's no packaging for the vegetables, because they're all loose, as in many shops they are loose, but why do we have to have any of this packaging at all? It just struck me that buying the vegetables loose in that sort of way—. And also, in that market, there is a deposit-return scheme that operates, in that a couple of the stores take back the bottles and take some money off what you then buy. And so, in small ways, these things are already operating.

But, obviously, I think the rise of farmers' markets—and we've got one in Cardiff North as well, in Rhiwbina—is very important. I don't know if the Minister would like to comment on that.

And then, the deposit-return scheme is something I have supported for many years, and I do hope we will now, you know, really get ahead and do it. I just hope, if it's a Wales-and-England approach, it won't make it slower, really. And I would also like to hear the commitment that we will go ahead with it ourselves, even if perhaps England doesn't. I don't know if you can comment about that.

So, in conclusion, I think this is an agenda that we are united politically on and, most importantly, I think the public are very united as well. But I think that education and leading on this in schools, which a lot of the eco-councils do, is also very vital.