ENVIRONMENT Minister Zac Goldsmith is facing calls to end the ‘shame’ of plastic waste exports following a damning Greenpeace report.
Lord Goldsmith, 46, has been accused of “actively fighting off” ways to strengthen environmental law and the government has been urged to “take control”.
A Greenpeace report, Trashed, released last month revealed around 40 per cent – or 210,000 tonnes – of the UK’s plastic waste exports were sent to Turkey last year.
But rather than being recycled, investigators saw some of it dumped by roads, in fields and in waterways.
The report suggested plastic from the UK was evident at sites which included packaging and plastic bags from high street retailers such as Tesco, Asda, the Co-op, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Marks & Spencer, as well as Lucozade and Fanta bottles and a car number plate.
The government said the UK is a “global leader in tackling plastic pollution” – after Greenpeace called for it to “take control” of the problem.
The House of Lords is set to debate Amendments to the Environmental Bill today, which would place a total ban on all exports of plastic waste.
Lib Dem Peer Baroness Bakewell will demand that the UK ‘stands on its own two feet’ by processing all its plastic waste at home, and reducing plastic production.
The Liberal Democrat Lords Environment Spokeswoman is set to remind Zac Goldsmith that his green reputation is at stake.
She said: “Zac is well-known as an environmentalist and an ecologist but as Lord Goldsmith in government he is now actively fighting off action to strengthen environmental law.”
From 2017 to 2019, two thirds of plastic waste separated for recycling in the UK was sent abroad for processing.
A total of 105,000 tonnes of UK plastic was imported by Malaysia alone in 2017-18, with many of the countries in the Global South receiving the UK’s rubbish having high rates of plastic waste mismanagement, resulting in piles of the UK’s plastic waste littering their roads and environment.
Sian Sutherland, Co-founder of A Plastic Planet, said: “The UK generates more plastic waste per person than almost any other country in the world, second only to the USA.
“But we take so little real responsibility for it – this has to change. Sending our plastic rubbish for other countries to deal with is the worst of waste imperialism.”
Some countries have since begun to reject the UK’s plastic waste, with Turkey the most recent to implement a ban on plastic waste imports.
Liberal Democrat Lords Environment Spokesperson, Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, added: “Our reaction to other nations’ import bans should not be to cast around for new places to send our waste to.
“Instead we must reduce the amount of waste Britain produces, and work to deal with what is left right here on our own shores. My amendment to the Environment Bill today would compel the government to do just that.”
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