Parliament is to consider a motion that acknowledges the environmental damage of plastic pollution and calls for the government to ensure producers of plastic pay for the environmental cost of plastic.

Geraint Davies, Labour MP for Swansea West said, “Parliament is to consider a motion that acknowledges that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050 and that multi-national companies receiving fossil fuel subsidies is making it worse. What’s more the tax-payer foots the bill for recycling when all this should be in the price of the plastic. This will reduce the wasteful overproduction of plastic which is overwhelming our planet.”

The ‘Early day motion on Plastic Pollution’, signed by a group of MPs says:

“This House notes that according to the United Nations there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050; that global fossil fuel subsidies amount to $5.3 trillion – more than the combined GDP of UK and France; that fossil fuel subsidies reduce the cost of plastic production; that taxpayers also pay 90 per cent of UK plastic recycling costs; calls upon the Government to introduce a tax on plastics to offset the fossil fuel subsidy, cover the costs of recycling and offset the environmental damage of plastics and to therefore encourage the use of sustainable alternatives and reduce the cost of recycling to the taxpayer.”

Geraint Davies MP said:

“There is nothing inevitable about the growing amounts of plastic bottles washed up on the shore, or the trapped fish and suffocating birds in Blue Planet 2 with their habitats destroyed by plastic. But we need to take action now or there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.”

“The government’s ‘twenty-five year plan’ is too little too late. We need to take radical action.”

“Plastic is destroying our oceans, yet big corporations are being given fossil fuel subsidies more than the combined GDP of UK and France. Meanwhile, the taxpayer also covers more than 90% of the cost of recycling plastic.”

“Corporations should pay for the damage they cause. Rather than being paid to pollute our waters, the polluters should pay for the plastic they produce and for it to be recycled. Only then will they be forced to create environmentally friendly alternatives. The government should introduce a charge on plastics to cover the costs of recycling, encourage the use of sustainable alternatives and reduce the taxpayer’s burden.”