Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:12 pm on 20 September 2022.
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and of course I welcome the Bill. We've all seen the unnecessary devastating impact that single-use plastics have on our environment and our wildlife. So, what are we talking about? Well, currently, 11 million metric tonnes of plastic waste is entering our ocean every year. If we keep on as we are now, that will double by 2040. And, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, if it is the case that, globally, we cannot deal with reusing any of that plastic, it's going to triple by 2040. So, we're talking about a potential 33 million metric tonnes of plastic waste in our sea alone by 2040. So, that is why I welcome this Bill. We have to act and we have to act now.
The one question I have is that I notice there's a list of things that are single-use plastic, but we all know that we suddenly discover that there's plastic in other things that we didn't know about, and wet wipes are a good example of that. So, my question is clear: can we then use that existing legislation, if we need to, to add things that we become aware of, which we might not be aware of now, that are single use and that have plastic in them? Thank you.