Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Deputy Minister, for your statement this afternoon. It is right to say the mindset change that we've seen in Wales over the last 10 to 15 years has been something that can be proudly held up as an exemplar to other parts of the world, but we can't let any progress slip now. Obviously, progress needs to be made, and it's worth noting that recycling rates did decline—I appreciate only marginally by about 1.5 to 2 per cent—in the last reporting period that the Minister touched on, and I do think what's really important is accountability and the audit trail. I don't want to sound too civil servant-y, but when people do see images of far-flung places in the globe such as Malaysia and other places, with recyclable products that are clearly from the domestic market and, in particular, Wales, that really does cause concern, I would suggest, and credibility issues do arise in people's minds about all the efforts they are making. So, I would be grateful to understand exactly how the Minister can bring greater accountability to the audit trail, because it is a fact. If I just take two local authorities: Bridgend, for example, exported over 1,000 tonnes of recyclable plastics to an unspecified location in Germany; and Rhondda Cynon Taf, for example, exported 707 tonnes of plastic waste to an unspecified location in Malaysia, and a further 172 tonnes of waste to unspecified locations in Poland. I appreciate it in tonnage terms—considering there's 132,000 tonnes of recyclable product out of domestic households in a year coming from Wales—that these numbers are relatively small, but they cause doubt in people's minds, and it is vital that we can have robust measures to make sure that where bad practice is in place, we can stamp that out.

I notice in the Minister's statement that she does talk about 95 per cent being domestically used, or recycled, should I say? I presume you're talking about the UK market there rather than just the Welsh market, because I think it's important to distinguish between the two so that we do understand we're talking about the UK in its entirety. So, any information you can give on accountability and greater strength in the auditing process would be greatly received.

The consultation that the Government have out at the moment around the business community and the important role that they can play is something that is to be welcomed. But you have to take business with you, and I do hope that, obviously, this is a genuine consultation that will look at the practicalities businesses face and, in particular, some of the additional costs that might have to be borne here in Wales to achieve a goal that I think we all want to march to, but ultimately can't be putting businesses in an uncompetitive position. And I would like to try and understand why there's this obsession about making sure that either the household or the businesses segregate the recycling. I visited CWM Environmental in Carmarthenshire recently and they clearly showed me that their systems could work quite willingly with mixed recycling, because they can separate on site, they can. And therefore, if I take my own local authority area, and I declare an interest as a Member—they have just issued orange bags, white bags, blue bags, grey plastic containers, all arriving on people's doorsteps over the last couple of weeks to be implemented now in the next couple of months, let alone the storage issue of where people can keep all that, the ability of people to get their heads around another change in the recycling regime that was mixed recycling, only introduced 12 months ago, which is somewhat challenging when the recycling sector can do this recycling themselves. I accept that you can't put food waste in general recycling—that's perfectly obvious. But general recycling—there is the technology to do it and I'd be keen to understand why we need to be making such specific demands on household and, in particular, businesses.

I'd also like to hear what the Minister's views are, in particular, on incineration, which her report touches on, and household waste going to incineration, as a green energy, because, obviously, her and I have debated and discussed this across the Chamber here, and there are proposals currently in Cardiff, and I know in other parts of Wales, to bring incinerators online. So, again, I'd like to understand how, working with the planning system, residents' views can be taken into consideration, and where concerns are raised, these concerns are taken seriously. But, overall, we all want to submit to an economy where, ultimately, we look back and say, 'Do you remember when we all used to have to recycle?', because we'll have an economy that actually generates products that don't need recycling because they're biodegradable or all the rest of it.

So, power to your elbow in what you're trying to do, but you do need stronger auditing processes, you do need a more robust planning system when it comes to incineration, and above all, you do need to take business with you in the consultation, because, ultimately, if there is additional cost, that could take the competitive edge off businesses here in Wales when they're on a UK footprint.