3. What are the Welsh Government's priorities for further increasing recycling rates? OQ58108

Llywydd, building on Wales's success to date, our priorities are to deliver the 70 per cent target by 2024-25, to bring forward the regulations to increase business and public sector recycling, to increase the recycling of key materials and to work with partners to accelerate the move to a circular economy.

Thank you, First Minister, for that answer. Recent statistics show that Wales was the only part of the UK to maintain its excellent recycling rates during the course of the pandemic, and I'd like to thank every Welsh citizen and council worker who did their bit to make that possible. Another remarkable achievement is the fact that food waste here in Wales is converted via anaerobic digestion, creating sufficient power for 12,000 Welsh homes. First Minister, I know that you share my ambition to make what is good even better, not least by reducing food waste in the first place. So, can I ask how is Welsh Government engaging with both businesses and public sector bodies throughout the supply chain to reduce food waste?

Well, Llywydd, Vikki Howells makes an important point there. In the waste hierarchy set out by the Welsh Government, the first thing we aim to do is to reduce waste in the first place, before we go on to reuse, repair and recycle, and reducing food waste has all sorts of other advantages beyond the narrowly environmental.

During the pandemic, Llywydd, we were able to do more to work with FareShare Cymru to increase the coverage of their work with the food supply chain and therefore to redirect surplus food. As a result, they are now supplying over 200 organisations, and we're expanding coverage further to the whole of Wales. During the month of April, I was able to visit, with my colleague Jane Hutt, a fantastic project in the town of Barry where food secured through FareShare Cymru is made available to people, who, very sadly, in the cost-of-living crisis we are facing, need to use those facilities even more than in the past.

In the previous 12 months, Llywydd, by working with FareShare Cymru, they have been able to redistribute 882 tonnes of food, which contributes to nearly 900,000 meals—food that would otherwise have gone to waste. And it's a very good example, I think, of the way, here in Wales, in which we are able to mobilise a very progressive third sector organisation and the partnerships they have with supermarkets and other businesses and local volunteers, but doing it within a framework supported by the local authority and by the Welsh Government.

First Minister, I'm sure that you would join me in thanking the 7,000 people in Wales who have signed up to take part in the Big Plastic Count. Their selflessness and their efforts will now provide a national snapshot of the plastic waste problem that actually plagues our communities. However, there is no denying that further action needs to be taken to tackle the plastic plague. WRAP Cymru worked with Monmouthshire County Council recently to review their choice of switching from single-use plastic milk bottles to reusable glass milk bottles. It found that the move to glass resulted in cost savings of 39 per cent for the local authority and a 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Rhondda Cynon Taf alone recycled 750 tonnes of glass last year—enough to make bottles to contain 2.7 million pints of milk. Now, I think that this is a really good example to follow. So, First Minister, speaking of supermarkets, would you consider working with them in an effort to see whether they would transition to the greater use of glass instead of plastic? Diolch.

That's a really important point that the Member makes. I join with her in congratulating those people who've signed up to the Big Plastic Count. I do remember, Llywydd, myself taking a group of young people across the beach, Tenby North beach, in the year 2000 as part of the millennium great plastic count, and having it repeated so that we can see where patterns are changing, where progress is being made and where ground is being lost, is a very important part of how we can plan to do better in the future.

We know that young people in schools have led the way in looking for recyclable glass bottles for milk, and paper straws instead of plastic straws. Young people themselves have been fantastic advocates for that. And doing more with the supermarkets—my colleague Lesley Griffiths, meets with them regularly. And as I said, a number of supermarkets are themselves genuinely wishing to be progressive in doing more in the packaging that they use, in the reuse of material that otherwise would go into landfill, and we can certainly take up the idea that the Member has mentioned this afternoon.

Question 4, Russell George.

Diolch, Llywydd. What are the Welsh Government's priorities for—? Sorry, wrong question—that was No. 3.