Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to start by thanking my colleague, Hefin David, for bringing forward this short debate on what is a prevalent topic, both prevalent now, as we said, in the public and political consciousness, but also in terms of the problem of plastic pollution. As we've all said in the Chamber, plastic is everywhere and we use it every day, and in some aspects it has a purpose and a place, but I think what we're all becoming increasingly aware of is the problem posed by single-use, often unnecessary, throw-away plastic.

Hefin reeled off a number of startling statistics and facts, and I'm not going to try and repeat all of them now, but one thing that really sticks is my mind is that if we don't take action to tackle plastic pollution, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our seas. So, we are seeing communities across the country taking action to tackle single-use plastic and I'd like to take the opportunity today to give this rise of community campaigns the recognition it deserves, and it's fantastic to see Caerphilly joining this network towards change in our country.

And it's right—there is a role for all of us to play, as citizens, consumers, producers, retailers, businesses, policy makers and, of course, politicians. And our local authority partners have a pivotal part to play, both in working together to reduce the use of plastic in publicly supported organisations, specifically schools, and in the collection and processing of waste and recyclables. We know that Wales is the only nation in the UK that has statutory targets for recycling. All of our local authorities collect plastic for recycling, and RECOUP's UK survey for 2017 shows that Wales collects for recycling 74 per cent of the plastic bottles, and 51 per cent of the plastic pots, tubs and trays that are estimated to be put on the market here in Wales. We know that local authorities are key to our aspirations to reduce and indeed to ensure that plastic waste is recycled. And I was interested to hear of the project you talked about in Caerphilly, saying about the different stakeholders coming together, and I'd also be interested to hear about the progress of that and what could be shared elsewhere across the country.

Also, local authorities have the opportunity to maximise the considerable leverage they can have through procurement, and we're working with some local authorities on a number of pilot projects in Wales to demonstrate how procurement can deliver more sustainable solutions. A number of these are focusing on a more appropriate use of plastic, with one aimed at reducing plastic in the food supply chain, and another two are trialling a switch from plastic to glass milk bottles in schools. And I'm pleased that the Waste and Resources Action Programme, WRAP, are working with us on these pilots, assessing the implications of the different materials on cost, end users and suppliers. The results of these pilots will be shared with other local authorities to encourage similar behavioural change. And I know that it's something on the minds of a lot of the young people in those schools, as I've received, and in my previous portfolio, a number of letters from children keen to see the change from plastic milk bottles in their schools to cut down on their single-use plastic use.

And we know that we as householders in Wales have been separating our waste and recycling for collection for years, and this Government will consult further so that businesses and organisations are required to do the same under provisions of Part 4 of the environment Act.

We're also working closely with both industry and local authority partners to increase treatment capacity here in Wales of the plastics that we collect. But as we've heard here today, prevailing opinion is moving towards producers needing to take more responsibility for the end-of-life management of the plastic that they put on the market in the first place, and changes to regulations will help address that. You touched on the extended producer responsibility and, currently, producers [Inaudible.] 10 per cent of that. In line with the 'polluter pays' principle, the Welsh Government will shortly consult, alongside the UK and Scottish Governments, on proposals for reforming the EPR regime for packaging on a UK-wide basis.

As I expected, deposit-return schemes scored high on the agenda, and I actually popped into the showcase here in the Senedd and had a go myself. It's something that will appeal to children, and when I've had conversations with counterparts in other nations that already have these, we often hear stories of enterprising young people, after there's been an event or festival, going round collecting the containers that are eligible for a DRS and taking them along to the local collection point. So, at the same time that we will consult jointly with the UK Government on the development of an EPR scheme, we'll also consult jointly on a deposit-return scheme, and I intend that to happen very shortly. As part of this consultation and any scheme, I think it's important that we actually consider holistically the impact on industry, on consumers and on our local authority collection services and statutory recycling targets here in Wales.