The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Rebecca Evans, and amendments 2 and 3 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Item 7 on our agenda this afternoon is the Welsh Conservatives debate on reducing plastic waste, and I call on Andrew R.T. Davies to move the motion.

Motion NDM7065 Darren Millar

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Recognises the growing importance that the Welsh public places on reducing plastic waste.

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to strengthen supply chains in Wales to prevent the export of ‘environmental pollution’ to third countries and retain public confidence.

3. Believes the Welsh Government should use its powers to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers.

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government and other devolved nations to take steps to help eliminate avoidable plastic waste by also:

a) banning the supply of plastic straws, exempting individuals with disabilities;

b) preventing the supply of plastic-stemmed cotton buds except for scientific use; and

c) banning drinks stirrers.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, it's a pleasure to move the motion this afternoon that is laid in the name of Darren Millar. We are really in the twilight zone for a Wednesday afternoon, but I'm pleased to see that Members from all parties have stayed for the debate this afternoon. If I can just deal with the amendments first, and then I'll move into the substantive part of my speech.

Sadly, the Government have reverted to form and got a 'delete all' amendment down. I'm not quite sure why our whole motion needs to be deleted, and then you take two points of that motion and insert them into your amendment. That does seem slightly bizarre to me. On the Plaid amendments, we'll happily support the first of Plaid's amendments, and on the second we'll be abstaining, not because we disagree with that amendment but because we are unsure whether the technology is there to actually deliver on that aspiration. If, in the Plaid spokesperson's points this afternoon, you can convince us of that then we'll happily support accordingly, but at the moment we don't think the technology is there to move it along.

So, moving on, today's motion states that this is an issue that is wholeheartedly resonating with the Welsh public and one that they are placing a growing importance on us as politicians to tackle. Latest polling shows that an overwhelming majority of the public are concerned about the use of plastic and, in part, that has been sparked by David Attenborough's brilliant, illuminating Blue Planet series, which has served to highlight the ever-increasing detrimental impact that plastic litter is having on our natural environment.

You only have to look a stone's throw away from Cardiff Bay itself to sadly see the significant levels of plastic that are entering our marine environment, and it is clear that, as politicians, we have a duty to act. Indeed, a study by Cardiff University found that one in every two insects in the river Taff system contained microplastics, and there is evidence that these microplastic particles are being ingested by river birds. We can be in no doubt that plastic is wreaking havoc on our environment, having a terrible impact on animals and wildlife and degrading our most precious habitats.

And it is not only isolated to marine life. It is also having a detrimental impact on our streets and our neighbourhoods. It is absolutely vital that we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles that we find discarded each day and not sent for recycling. We need to educate and deliver a huge change in the behaviour and habits of people. Without urgent action to cut demand, it is estimated that 34 billion tonnes of plastic will have been manufactured globally by 2050.

The shelf-life of plastics means that they can last for centuries in landfill or else end up as litter in the natural environment. In turn, this can pollute soils, rivers and oceans and harm the creatures that inhabit them. It is in the fish were eating; it is even in the bottled water we're drinking. Estimates vary, but the Canal and River Trust and Coventry University estimate that 14 million pieces of plastic end up in British rivers and canals each year, with around 0.5 million items of plastic being carried into the ocean.

I think we all agree in this Chamber that a key part of our mission as AMs is to leave the environment and our country in a better state than we found it. At UK level, the Conservative Government has made great strides in tackling the scourge of plastics, through its 25-year environmental plan, which has brought forward important measures, such as the ban on microbeads in personal care and cosmetic products, and a ban on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. And whilst there is a good level of co-operation between the two Governments on these issues, it's clear that, in Wales, we can be doing more.

As highlighted yesterday by the latest member of the opposition ranks, the Member for Blaenau Gwent, who sadly isn't with us today, who said that Wales seemed to be struggling in this particular policy area of late, and we could and should be far more ambitious. Because whilst I am a supporter of the UK Government's achievements on policy platforms, I want to see Wales leading from the front on this issue, and, at the moment, we're behind the curve, not just the rest of the UK, but other countries across the globe, in tackling this issue.

Canada, for one, announced this week that it will aim to ban harmful single-use plastics by 2021. To its credit—and I don't say this often—the Welsh Government has delivered some impressive recycling rates in Wales, all but for the first time in 2017-18, the total amount of recycled waste actually decreased. And, of course, Wales did take the lead on introducing the plastic bag carrier charge in 2011, but I think it is fair to say that these innovative policies have been somewhat lacking of late. Whether this is a capacity or leadership issue, that is one for the Government to answer, but it is clear to many that we need to up our game here in Wales, and that's not just the responsibility of the environment department, but all Government departments.

Only yesterday, I received a note from a constituent who was alarmed at the high level of plastic waste currently witnessed across the Welsh health service, for example. We need to join up the approach right across Government with dedicated targets and strategies that leave no stone unturned. And why is that? Because plastic waste is escaping into our environment at a phenomenal rate of knots. It degrades into microplastics and this is then easily absorbed into the natural environment. The impact that this has on our wildlife, ecosystems and human health is poorly understood. We have dangerous and negative consequences for people and nature here in Wales.

This shows that we must do all we can to lower the consumption of single-use plastics as we look to improve Wales's natural environment and lessen the impact of human activity on our planet. And that starts with strengthening our supply chains here in Wales to prevent the export of environmental pollution to third countries and retain public confidence.

You might have seen on Monday BBC's documentary with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita. That uncovered shocking evidence of recyclable plastic waste from Wales that had been exported for recycling but had, in fact, been dumped in Malaysia. Amongst a raft of items from the UK, footage from the documentary showed that recycling bags from Rhondda Cynon Taf were part of the dumped waste, which, of course, brings into question the Welsh Government's supply chain and procurement strategy. A 20 ft-high pile of plastic waste in Malaysia that has been exported from other countries is a travesty and clearly unacceptable, and shows we are not dealing with our waste appropriately. The issue of the exportation of environmental pollution has been exacerbated by Malaysia sending back almost 3,000 metric tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste to its place of origin, including the UK, whilst China has recently banned the importation of plastic waste for recycling due to environmental problems caused by the contaminated waste.

It is paramount that the public has confidence in the waste management systems and that waste produced in Wales is dealt with responsibly and that waste being sent for recycling is actually being recycled. That's not too big an ambition, surely. The Welsh Government's circular economy fund is a welcome step, but like a number of announcements from your benches of late, we are lacking a significant amount of detail on how it will be implemented, monitored and assessed.

Circular economy experts, WRAP Cymru, have made a number of recommendations that aim to create greater, greener transparency in the supply chain. These include achieving a fourfold growth in reprocessing capacity to around 200,000 tonnes per annum and encouraging manufacturers and importers to report how much virgin plastic and recycled plastic they use within their processes. In their view, this will reduce plastic waste exported outside of Wales for recycling to 25 per cent. As such, on these benches, we want to see the Welsh Government focus on creating a circular supply chain that places sustainability and the environment at the core of the supply chain processes, retaining materials and products, and ensuring that they're reused to limit the amount of natural resources used and carbon emissions produced. Furthermore, the exportation of waste must be limited to prevent the exportation of environmental pollution to other countries, which reduces attempts in Wales to create a greener, more equal society. This strategy should outline steps to reduce waste creation within the supply chain, promote more sustainable supply chain processes, and reduce the exportation of waste and other environmental issues to restore public confidence.

As Welsh Conservatives, I am proud of the fact that we led way back in 2015, calling for a bottle deposit-return scheme. Regrettably, some four years on, we haven't seen as much progress in this area as we'd like to have seen, and on these benches, it is now imperative that the Government come forward with greater ambition. We need to move away from being the throwaway society and clean up our streets and environment, our beaches and our rivers. A deposit-return scheme will have a widescale impact on increasing recycling rates, reducing emissions and helping to reduce the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and materials. And I hope the Welsh Government will continue to work with colleagues in Westminster and other devolved parliaments and assemblies to help eliminate avoidable waste by also ensuring the ban on the supply of plastic straws, but exempting individuals with disabilities; preventing the supply of plastic-stem cotton buds, except for scientific use; and banning drink stirrers. As a Conservative, the word 'ban' often gives me the shivers, but we are reaching a breaking point.

We can no longer tinker around the edges. Urgent and decisive action is needed from the Government to tackle plastic pollution and protect our environment. We need to lead and we need to take the public with us, and large public bodies and industry need to buy into this. Plastic items are often used for just a few minutes but take hundreds of years to break down, ending up in our seas and our oceans and harming our precious marine life. We can no longer do nothing. So, I call on Members to support the motion before them this evening and support what we are seeking to do, which is hand on a better environment to the next generation than we inherited.

I have selected the three amendments to the motion. I call on the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government to move formally amendment 1, tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans.

Amendment 1—Rebecca Evans

Delete all and replace with:

1. Recognises the growing importance that the Welsh public places on reducing plastic waste.

2. Acknowledges that Wales is leading the way in the UK with current municipal recycling rates at 62.7 per cent.

3. Calls on the Welsh Government to strengthen supply chains in Wales to prevent the export of ‘environmental pollution’ to third countries and retain public confidence.

4. Welcomes the Welsh Government’s commitment to reducing single use plastic bottles in Wales, including the Re-Fill Nation initiative.

5. Notes that the Welsh Government is continuing to work with the UK Government on proposals for introducing a deposit return scheme and believes the Welsh Government should explore how it could introduce such a scheme.

6. Recognises that the Welsh Government is committed to restricting the availability of plastic straws and banning drink stirrers and cotton buds in Wales, in line with the European Union’s single-use plastic directive, along with plastic cutlery, plates; expanded polystyrene food and drinks containers, and balloon sticks.

Amendment 1 moved.

Formally.

Thank you. Can I call on Dai Lloyd to move amendments 2 and 3, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth? Dai.

Amendment 2—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Calls on the Welsh Government to use its powers to update festival planning and licencing guidelines to eliminate single-use plastics.

Amendment 3—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Calls for a ban on plastic food packaging which isn’t recyclable or biodegradable, which would include polystyrene and plastic film packaging.

Amendments 2 and 3 moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and it's a pleasure to participate in this important debate on plastics, following that excellent opening by Andrew R.T. Davies. Of course, as a party, we are seeking to enhance the motion with two amendments. The first calls on the Welsh Government to use its powers to update festival planning and licensing guidance to eliminate single-use plastics. And the second is to add another point at the end of the motion that calls for a ban on plastic food packaging that isn't recyclable or biodegradable, which would include polystyrene and plastic film packaging. So we're calling for a ban on those along with single-use plastics.

Because there's a major challenge facing us. And Andrew, like me, is a member of the climate change committee, and we've published a report just this week—the climate change committee here in the Senedd—on plastic pollution, which outlines the fact that plastic pollution is one of the greatest challenges facing our planet. Those are the first words of the Chair's foreword here, because microplastics are everywhere. And of course the background to all of this is that the Welsh Government recently declared a climate emergency, and in making such a declaration, we do then need to step up and take action. It's not a matter of simply making an announcement; we need to take action about that. This report by the climate change committee does note in general terms that we are disappointed as a committee that the Government in the past hasn't tackled the scale of this problem, particularly in relation to plastics.

I didn't want to rehearse many of the points that Andrew has already referred to, and we've all seen those television programmes, such as Blue Planet and the programme broadcast on Monday evening, which found plastic waste from Rhondda Cynon Taf in rural Malaysia. But I did want to focus on the impacts of microplastics, which are an increasing challenge for our health as human beings. There have been many studies that have discovered that microplastics—very small pieces of plastic—and nanoplastics, which are even smaller, do permeate to everywhere. They are in our soils, our rivers, our seas; they are even in the Arctic ice. That's the evidence that we as a committee received. Having permeated, these microplastics then appear in our food chain, in what we eat; in the air that we breathe—it is part of air pollution. Because these nanoplastics are so very small you find them even on the rubber of our tyres, which generate these nanoplastics and then they become air pollution. We breathe them into our lungs, and they are so very minute that not only do these nanoplastics get into our lungs, but they also get into our bloodstream, given their size. That plastic then enters our bloodstream and therefore enters our hearts too, as do very many other microgranules. The particulates that are part of air pollution are now getting into all parts of our body.

So, there is a huge challenge here in terms of public health, and Governments everywhere need to step up to the plate, because there is a direct challenge to public health here. The Welsh Government, having declared a climate emergency, must now take action in this area, and they have to be serious about eliminating plastic. Plastic has to be seen as the enemy, and certainly we need to eliminate the use of single-use plastics and tackle polystyrene and plastic film packaging. Exporting them across the world is not a solution to the problem. We need to tackle it here, and we need to ensure that we use far less plastic, with the intention, ultimately, of eliminating the use of plastics. But, of course, as Andrew has mentioned, they last for years, centuries, so we have a challenge in dealing with the plastics we have already created. Thank you.

I'm very pleased to take part in this debate—very timely; as Dai just indicated, there's a report just published by the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on this subject, and I too thought the Chair's foreword was excellent and rather sobering, and I quote:

'Plastic pollution is now one of the greatest challenges facing our planet, and Wales can't solve this global problem on its own, but we cannot wait any longer, it's important that we step up and take a lead when we can.'

And that's very much what we should be doing. I know that there are some people in this Assembly who take the view that, because Wales is such a small part of the world population, we're sort of absolved from playing our part in these challenges. Well, that's not how it should be; we should be completely aware of our responsibility and we should try to lead where we can, and we've talked a little bit about recycling, and there are deeper issues there. But, broadly, I think Wales has done well there, and has led the way in many respects. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, I read today in one of our national newspapers that the World Wildlife Fund has just issued a report saying that the average person in Britain ingests the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic a week, and 90 per cent of that is via water. Now, I hope Radio 4's programme More or Less will be looking at that claim, because it seems absolutely fantastic to me that we can be consuming so much plastic directly. But it is a reminder that, particularly in our consumption of water and in consuming products that come in plastic containers, as more and more do, whereas, often, many of them would have been in glass or whatever—you know, these things really have to be borne in mind.

So, I've said I do commend the Government where it has taken action and I think the spirit of this motion is that we bank that but then go further and we do need, as Andrew said, to ensure that the next generation gets a greener, more sustainable environment than the one that we've inherited and, indeed, partly created.

I do want to look at the deposit scheme first, because I think it's interesting how the public not only widely accepts the need for this, but they've been ahead of us, they've really been pushing us to look at these schemes. I think this is true on many environmental issues as well, and we need to draw on that enthusiasm. In fairness to the Welsh Government, they have sponsored a report that looked at extending producer responsibility, and that demonstrates that a 90 plus per cent recycling rate could be achieved in this area, and, indeed, there is some best practice around the world that does demonstrate that. So, again, I do think that Welsh Government is right to be pushing in this area. And also, if you look at, in particular, a deposit-return scheme, one of the advantages of that is that we would also be developing very high-quality data in the way that those schemes tend to be run. Again, I think that would be very, very helpful for us, and we've heard issues of the circular economy referred to.

I think the Government is sending the right signals, but, like Andrew, I think you need to get a move on, and we need to see that there is some progress fairly soon. I was pleased that a significant number of Members, Deputy Presiding Officer, attended the event that I sponsored earlier this year, when a deposit-return scheme machine was brought into the Assembly, and we all had a chance to use it and see it in action. I think we were very impressed by how practical and effective it was, and I thank in particular the Marine Conservation Society for helping to organise that event, and, indeed, thank them for the wider work they do in Wales in leading the fight against plastic pollution.

I think the visible effect is really quite a concern as well. Andrew mentioned that we see it in our watercourses. I walk in to the Assembly more days than I drive, and I walk across the barrage, and to see the plastic waste being washed up against the barrage is really quite awful. So, I do think that we need to look at innovative ways, industry-led ways. That's the wonderful thing about the deposit scheme, that they would be responsible for it, at least with the favoured model, and we need to get on and do it.

Can I just conclude by saying how shocked I was by the documentaries on where we're sending our plastic waste, which we assume is being recycled? Malaysia and China were mentioned, and we need a reality check here, because this 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude needs to change, and we need to be assured that, when we're sending our waste abroad, it is actually getting recycled, and we're not just sending our problem abroad into economies and societies less equipped to recycle than we are. Thank you very much.

I want to concentrate on one aspect of plastic pollution, and it's been mentioned here earlier, of course, which is deposit-return. We have had a number of discussions and debates in this Chamber with regard to introducing a deposit-return scheme for plastic bottles, but there seems to have been little or no progress with regard to legislation on this subject. There's almost certainly cross-Chamber support for such legislation, as witnessed in earlier contributions, particularly David Melding's just now. The Minister for Environment at the time, Hannah Blythyn, stated as long ago as May last year that she was going to set up talks with Scottish, UK and Northern Ireland counterparts with a view to introducing such legislation. Did these talks take place and what was the outcome?

The scourge of plastic pollution is evident wherever we look: from our town centres to almost every walkway and, of course, in the huge volumes of detritus we see washed up on our shorelines. The time for action is now. We cannot procrastinate whilst this appalling form of pollution not only continues, but grows day by day.

There are two main solutions available: manufacture and distribute less, which should be our ultimate goal, and to recycle that which is being produced. Why is it that we were able to be the first country to put a tax on plastic bags, but we have not been able to go it alone with regard to introducing a deposit-return scheme not only for plastic bottles, but for glass bottles and drinks cans as well?

One word of caution: if we are to introduce deposit-return, then the deposit must be at a level that encourages everyone to recycle. It will be of little use putting 5p on an item—children, in particular, have no value on such amounts. In former years, the cost of a full Corona bottle was around a shilling, but the deposit-return was as high as thruppence. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with the old currency, that is a 25 per cent return value. As a young boy, I can assure you that was plenty of incentive to return your bottles, and, of course, any others you were fortunate to accumulate. I'm sure that a deposit-return scheme based on around the same percentages would have a massive impact on the recycling rates of not only plastic but glass and aluminium as well. I urge the Government to work with all of us in this Chamber to get the legislation in place to see this scheme go forward.

The plastic plague and pollution is a global worry. It is also a huge problem for us here in Wales, and no more so than in Aberconwy. I'm sure I'm not alone as an Assembly Member—we've carried out beach cleans with the Marine Conservation Society, NFU Mutual, and many of our residents. The things that we find there—mainly plastic, from bottles to cigarette stubs, which contain plastic also. I know, at my last beach clean, one member of the public just spent about half an hour and, around one of the benches on the promenade in Llandudno, 308 cigarette stubs. Sadly, that is just typical of so many of our beaches across Wales. For every 100m of Welsh beaches cleaned, an average of 53 drink containers are found. Residents report plastic waste in hedgerows beside the A470. Trefriw community council is admirably working to combat the waste caused by wild camping around Llyn Geirionydd. And, only last Friday, I had a meeting with a resident promoting alternatives to plastic. She'd actually been to Kenya and actually come back with—. Even in Kenya, over there, they are so in tune with what's going on and they are now banning the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and shops and things.

Clearly, combating plastic waste is a priority, so I welcome the debate today to highlight how the Welsh Government could and should be doing more for Wales, and the overwhelming majority of residents now, who are switched on, who are in tune, and they are simply unhappy with the use and the throwaway society of plastic that we have. Keep Wales Tidy's 'How Clean Are Our Streets?' report found that there has been little change in the presence of drinks litter since 2013-14. Plastic-related incidents reported to the RSPCA have increased almost 29 per cent between 2015 and 2018, and, according to WRAP Cymru, whilst Wales produces 400,000 tonnes of plastic waste per annum—an increasing figure—just 33 per cent of plastics are recycled.

Wales could be a world leader in recycling, and actually boasts itself to be so, but 17 local authorities have reported a decrease in reuse and recycling rates. The situation is even worse, as we know—Andrew Davies quite rightly pointed out that plastic waste exported from Wales has been found dumped in Malaysia, and personally I don't blame Malaysia for returning plastic waste, because I believe that we too have a moral and environmental obligation to target and to treat our own trash trouble. 

At the end of the day, poor waste management and not properly getting to grips with plastic pollution contradicts the goal—one of the main goals—in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, of having a globally responsible Wales. Positive progress can be achieved through creating a circular plastic economy, which could be greatly facilitated with better grants to help businesses boost use of recycled plastics. Finance can be used as an incentive, too, for the wider public to recycle, especially through the use of a deposit-return scheme, and I thought that the initiative brought forward that David Melding mentioned was absolutely fantastic. Why we haven't got those now in the Assembly, I have no idea.

This solution is very close to my heart. The need for this is clear when considering the plastics that are now being found, that our recycling rate for bottles is lower than other parts of Europe—around 70 per cent here in comparison to 94.5 per cent in Norway—and the fact that 3 billion plastic bottles are thrown away in the UK. England and Scotland have committed to introducing a deposit-return scheme, whilst all we seem to be doing here is talking about it, consulting about it, but not actually putting it into action. YouGov and the MCS have shown that 71 per cent of people in Wales support the introduction of the scheme, as does my counterpart Julie Morgan. So, I implore the Minister to get going and give us one.

Similarly, we need to give serious consideration to other areas where the UK Conservative Government is leading the way. These include the intention to ban, with reasonable exceptions, the sale of plastic straws, plastic-stem cotton buds and drink stirrers in England. I could probably name another 100 items that I'd like to see banned. According to Surfers Against Sewage, this is a really positive and bold step in the right direction in the battle against plastic pollution.

I agree, and have earlier this month written to my colleague Hannah Blythyn AM, asking about the use of plastic straws at Cardiff Airport, finding that only WHSmith now seem to continue to have such straws on site. Overall, the UK ranks second in the EU for the consumption per capita of straws and stirrers and first for cotton buds. These embarrassing figures are unsurprising when considering that the amount of plastic straws used within the public sector is actually increasing, and has done so by over a 0.25 million since 2013-14. So, whilst we are talking about it here today, it is still happening. So, Minister, please listen to our debate. Please do not 'delete all'. Support our motion, and let us all work together across this Chamber to see the eradication of plastic everywhere. Thank you.  

No reasonable person would disagree with this motion or any of the amendments tabled today. I am proud of the steps already taken to reduce the use of plastic in our consumables. The carrier bag charge in Wales broke new ground and has had a real impact on the use of these bags. It has changed behaviour, and we see evidence of this when we go to the supermarket and see people getting out their cloth bags, their trolley bags and their bags for life. Similarly, recycling rates are improving and are world-leading. Smaller bins, fewer collections of refuse and more collections of recyclables all help in this.

But there is more to be done. I see people in their cars throwing litter out of their car windows at traffic lights that they are passing through. They don't live there so it doesn't matter. Around local shops and around bus stops, plastics, paper food waste—all are chucked on the floor because they don't think or care, and someone else will clear it up eventually. And don't get me started on takeaway food outlets or our beaches. Who thinks that it's okay to leave dirty nappies on a beach, or are they just not thinking? Who on earth thinks that it's okay to throw their uneaten food and packaging out of the car when they are literally feet away from a bin, or are they just not thinking again? I think that all of the recommendations mentioned today have merit, and so I say, 'Just get on with it.'

I think that the whole country was touched by the Blue Planet series last year. There, in glorious technicolour, we all saw the heartbreaking end result of our throwaway society. But has this led to the behavioural change that we need? It has not. It does seem to me that a major consideration in this debate that is not mentioned is behavioural change, and I am interested in whether the Welsh Government is looking at behavioural science and its application in this area.

We've seen this nudge theory before used well in the opt-out for organ donation and pension arrangements. As a huge animal lover, I am very concerned with the detrimental effect that plastic has on animals in our seas and on our lands. In my view, this sort of approach needs to be in the mix to encourage a more mindful treatment of our environment and the place of plastics in it. Thank you.

I thank the Tory group for bringing this motion. The motion is absolutely spot on in attempting to prevent the use and export of plastic products, rather than some of the amendments to be made to the motion, which attempt to suggest that recycling is the solution to the issue of plastic overuse. We shouldn't get shrink-wrapped into a belief that material that is recyclable or biodegradable is okay to use. In order to biodegrade, material needs air and water, neither of which it gets if it's trapped under tonnes of other waste in landfill. Recycling itself takes a substantial amount of energy. Something made from 100 per cent recycled material is often thought of as totally environmentally friendly, yet the energy expended in its manufacture may well be higher than the original product. Labelling should be changed to reflect more accurately the total environmental cost of plastics—recycled or otherwise.

Typically, Labour's amendment congratulates itself rather than coming up with additional ideas to move the debate forward, and restricting the use of plastics is a much more limited undertaking from Welsh Government than the original motion’s suggested ban on the most unnecessary plastic products that cause a great deal of damage. The main reason we have exported plastic waste to other countries is because of the EU landfill tax, which placed a levy on every tonne of waste sent to landfill, while making no effort to ensure that any of it was actually recycled. As a result, instead of sending our rubbish to landfill or to our own recycling plants, we sent it to China and other places. The environmental cost of shipping it all that way was not considered, although it was huge. But it has allowed the EU and Welsh Government to claim a victory that their rules had saved tonnes of rubbish from going to landfill. Instead, it sits as huge mountains of waste not being recycled and not doing a thing to reduce the demand for creating new plastic. The EU directive has cost the global environment very dear, and has, to all intents and purposes, created landfill in China and the like instead. Sensibly, those countries are now starting to tell countries like us to deal with our own rubbish instead of dumping it on them. The EU landfill directive is a prime example of exactly the kind of deceitful and damaging virtue signalling that, for the sake of the planet and every living thing on it, Welsh Government and everyone else should avoid.

I will be supporting the Conservative motion, but I do think more emphasis should be placed on the manufacturers and producers that use plastic to stop doing so. Why should the public or local authorities—funded by public money—pay for the processing of waste that is produced purely and simply to help producers sell their products? Often, the consumer has no choice but to accept a lot of plastic that they neither need nor desire. Why should they then have to fund its processing? Perhaps a levy or an obligation should be placed on supermarkets and manufacturers to take back and dispose of the plastic they’re happy to dump on consumers. If producers and supermarkets had to take back the waste they create, and pay the resulting cost of recycling or disposal, they would think twice before foisting it on consumers in the first place.

And why oh why does everything have to be made out of plastic? Pretty much anything that can be made out of plastic can be made out of other materials—materials that could potentially be grown in Wales and provide an additional cash crop for Welsh farmers. Yes, manufacturers sometimes need to protect their products during transit, but they’re going way overboard with it—for instance, bottles of ink that come encased in massively thick plastic after they sold it for decades with minimal packaging. Perhaps the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee could investigate and challenge manufacturers and supermarkets to explain their decisions as to their use of plastics.

But it isn’t just packaging and the items listed by the Conservative motion—all of which I support. Plastics are also used in vehicles and home appliances—the list is absolutely endless. Certain items have an established process to dispose of and recycle the plastic components, but governments on both sides of the border and across the globe need to discourage the use of plastic across the board. So, finally, although the suggestions of the Conservative motion are a really good start, there needs to be a co-ordinated approach to plastic use to address all of its sources, and eventually eliminate its use altogether. Thank you.

I call on the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government, Hannah Blythyn.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I would like to start by genuinely welcoming the opportunity to have this debate today on this important topic—a topic that is incredibly prevalent in both the public and political consciousness. Plastic is a modern material that has transformed our lives—in many ways for the better. In the right way, it’s an important, useful material that has many applications, not least in medical usages, but has now increasingly and often brutally brought home just how the throwaway culture, which developed in the latter part of the last century, is costing our environment dearly.

We have to find innovative and effective ways to deal with plastic waste and end the use of unnecessary single-use plastics and materials that cannot be recycled or reprocessed. We’ve heard today how we have to act for our environment and for our future generations. And so much of the work to tackle plastic pollution is being led by young people, whether through our eco-schools network, localised action, and events of our own Youth Parliament. We can be proud of what we've achieved in Wales to date. We know we lead in the UK in municipal recycling with rates of 67.2 per cent, but we cannot be, and are not, complacent. I liked the way David Melding put it when he said we can bank what we've done and then go further, and that's what we are committed to doing.

There is no simple solution or perfect panacea for tackling the problem of plastic. Tackling plastic waste is complex and multifaceted, crossing personal, business and inter-governmental boundaries. So, we're working with industry and local authority partners to develop new infrastructure to increase the sorting and repossessing of plastic waste in Wales. We want to significantly reduce the reliance on overseas markets to recycle the plastic waste collected here at home in Wales. I have therefore agreed that the use of the £6.5 million circular economy capital investment fund for 2019-20 is focused strongly on the recycling of plastics. WRAP Cymru are overseeing the scheme on our behalf and I'm happy to circulate further details to Members.

Alongside that, we need to consider the management of plastic in the supply chain. Deposit-return schemes are proving—[Interruption.] Yes, sure.

I welcome that announcement that that money will be targeted at making a more robust recycling regime here in Wales, and I appreciate you're going to circulate information to Members. Will that information contain the details of what you're likely to achieve by the time you've spent that money? Because actually seeing that waste appear in Malaysia and other third countries is something that really is sapping the confidence of people making that conversion over to recycling.

We don't want people to stop recycling, so the answer to that is actually making sure we develop those markets closer to home. I'm more than happy to send as much information as we can for you to take a look at. 

I was talking about deposit-return schemes. They're proven to improve on-the-go recycling and reduce littering, as well as providing a high-quality collection of drinks containers that can be recycled. I've heard criticism today—I think we talked about how we had conversations with counterparts across devolved and UK administrations, but we have actually passed that now. I don't know whether some Members have been napping, but we did recently consult jointly with UK Government about the merits of introducing a deposit-return scheme and extended producer responsibility.

The consultation closed just last month and, as Members would expect, there was significant degree of interest and responses to the consultation. It's now important that we consider how any scheme would fit with our existing household collections as well as looking at the impacts on the consumers, such as costs and accessibility. As I said, these proposal for a DRS sit alongside wider proposals to introduce extended producer responsibility, which places more of an obligation on the producer for the packaging that they create. If these were implemented, the best and most beneficial approach would be to do this at the same time. 

During the consultation on both of these, I held a briefing session for Assembly Members as well as a meeting for stakeholders from across the piece with the local authorities, retailers, and also the environmental sector, and I'd be more than happy to repeat that as we go to the next stages of this process. Linked to this is our ambition to become the first refill nation. Refill is a practical tap water campaign to reduce the amount of plastic waste caused by single-use plastic bottles. Following our support and promotion of the refill schemes, I'm pleased to share with Members that there are now over 1,000 refill stations across Wales and over 96 per cent of communities along the Wales coastal path have a refill presence. 

I think it was Dai Lloyd and also David Melding who talked about microplastics and the impact particularly on the marine environment and our food chain. We are committed to working in partnership to tackle this problem to gather more evidence, and also work is under way regarding restrictions on products made from oxo-degradable plastics, which contain additives that hasten the breakdown to damaging microplastics. 

We've all heard about the recent announcement that has been repeated here today by the UK Government to ban plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in England. I can tell Members that here in Wales we are committed to restricting or banning the availability of these products in line with the European Union's single-use plastics directive. We've had announcements but what we do need is action. So, we will work with stakeholders and consult on our proposals for restrictions on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds and on a wider range of items such as balloon sticks, cutlery, plates and polystyrene food and drink containers. 

Additionally, the Welsh Treasury has been working with HM Treasury on proposals to incentivise the use of recycled plastic by applying a tax on all plastic packaging with less than 30 per cent recycled content. We will continue to work collaboratively with HM Treasury until more information is available on the UK Government's proposed approach, and ensure we continue to be part of the policy development and implementation process for any taxation measure in this area. 

But it's clear that the public, politicians and stakeholders across the piece are keen to take action to tackle plastic waste in Wales. Therefore, we continue to assess the potential for introducing a tax or charge on single-use drinks containers in Wales. This remains an option for us, and will depend on the outcome of a suite of waste and packaging consultations launched this year, including extended producer responsibility, which also actually had a question regarding a potential levy on drinks containers, alongside further action, and the work we're doing with businesses to increase their own levels of reuse.

It's also incredibly important that, in taking forward this agenda, we guard against unintended consequences, in addition to being both fair and proportionate in line with tax principles set out in the tax policy framework. But, as a nation, we can be particularly proud of our groundbreaking success in recycling, something that is recognised around the world. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of devolution, and, at the dawn of devolution, Wales recycled only 5 per cent of our waste. We have now reached over 60 per cent. We led the UK, introducing a carrier bag charge and brought in legislation to ban microbeads. I want Wales to lead the way once again on waste and resource management and in transitioning towards a zero-waste circular economy.

Colleagues, we should be under no illusions regarding the scale of the problem. There is much we can do as a Government and as individuals to make things better. Communities across the country are taking action to reduce single-use plastics, from Aberporth to Anglesey. This is to be applauded and supported. Momentum has been gaining in recent months on this, including in Mold, in my own constituency, with a second community meeting of Plastic Reduction Mold taking place this week. Small individual actions add up to make a collective difference, so the onus is on all of us to take action, Government included—action this Government has and will take to tackle problem plastic for our environment, for our communities and for our future. Diolch.

Thank you. Can I call on Nick Ramsay to reply to the debate?

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I think that the Minister hit the nail on the head there at the very end of her speech when she said that we need action on this as well as warm words. I'll keep my comments brief, Dirprwy Lywydd, because I appreciate the time, and Members from all parties, and independents of course, have made some very good points.

I think that, if you look at the statistics, they're truly horrifying. They have been cited by many speakers. Wales currently produces 400,000 tonnes of total plastic waste per year. The longevity of plastics, as we've heard, can mean that plastic lasts in landfill for centuries. I think Dai Lloyd's points were particularly pertinent to me as the father of a seven-month-old baby now. I think it's horrifying, not just what you spoke about with plastics and microplastics and nanoplastics—it's almost at science fiction level—building up in our bodies on a daily basis, but that process starts very early on when a baby is born, or perhaps even before. These microplastics and nanoplastics are everywhere. They're throughout the food chain. It's going to be incredibly difficult to deal with this situation, but we need to deal with that situation and we need to start now.

As my colleague David Melding said in his contribution, there's often an attitude of, 'What difference does it make if Wales does this, if a small country does its best? Because there are much larger countries, and if they're not taking any notice, then we can't really get anywhere'. Well, at least it's a start. We often talk about that phrase 'the size of Wales', don't we? Well, if a country the size of Wales can make a start with trying to deal with the problem of plastics, then maybe we can spread out good practice across the world and other countries will follow suit. We know other instances where we've passed things in this Chamber that, at the time, have seemed to a lot of people ludicrous. You might remember, when the single-use plastic bags were being discussed, there were some people who thought that would never work, that it was crazy, that people would take a Morrisons bag into a Sainbury's supermarket and would use that. Well, you see that all the time now, it's commonplace, and you have reusable bags and paper bags. So, there are things that, whilst at the time they seem difficult to achieve, in the future they can be achieved. So, let's make a start and urge that to happen.

Yes, we've had, as we've heard and as Dai said, a climate change emergency declared. We need to see action on the ground with climate change, but there are wider environmental issues such as the issues of plastic that need to be dealt with as well. I'm pleased that the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee has been looking at this. It's very important that this area is scrutinised fully. One of the reasons, in terms of the amendments, we are rejecting the Government amendment is because it will delete our motion. We are supporting amendment 2, which makes some very good points about guidance given by the Welsh Government. We have an issue with amendment 3 and we're going to abstain on that, not because it's a very noble aim to ban plastic food packaging that isn't recyclable or biodegradable, but I want to see some more information on the mechanisms of doing that and then we will give our full support. And I think that's an issue where climate change committee and other committees can look at scrutinising and providing very real solutions to the Government.

As Andrew R.T. Davies said right at the very start, we need to hand on—I'm paraphrasing now—an environment that is better than we received. We need to do that in terms of the next generation with all sorts of things. We can look at the health service, we can look at education, we can look at transport, at roads, as we discussed, but, on the issue of the environment, it is this planet that is our heritage and that we leave to future generations. And without the planet on which we—well, I am standing now and I am talking to you about defending the planet—. Without that, really, everything else pales into insignificance. So, I think, Andrew, you made a very good point at the very start of your speech, which really resonates through everyone else's contributions today and, indeed, that the Minister responded to.

So, can I thank everyone who contributed to today's debate? I think it's a debate that has been brought to the fore by programmes such as David Attenborough's Blue Planet. I hope that many other programmes also continue to raise the profile of this issue. It's something that wasn't discussed that long ago and now we're discussing it in this Chamber, and discussing a problem is the first stage to solving it.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Therefore, we defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.