Theresa May has reaffirmed her determination to curb the use of environmentally damaging plastic packaging, amid concern about their impact on the world’s oceans.
Appearing on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, the Prime Minister pointed to the success of the 5p levy on plastic carrier bags in reducing their use.
She said ministers were now looking to do the same in relation to single-use plastics such as bubble wrap, cutlery, and polystyrene takeaway boxes.
Mrs May highlighted the success of the BBC’s Blue Planet II series in raising public awareness about the issue.
“People often think about environment issues and wonder whether the Government can have an impact on that,” she said.
“If you just look at one thing that we’ve done, in 2015 we introduced the 5p charge on carrier bags, on plastic bags. Actually we now see nine billion fewer plastic bags being used.
“It’s making a real difference. We want to do the same in relation to single plastic use. Nobody who watched Blue Planet will doubt the need for us to do something.”
Her comments follow Chancellor Philip Hammond’s announcement in the Budget last November that the Government is to look at taxes and charges to help prevent pollution and protect the environment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel