Commenting on the government’s delay to the extended producer responsibility scheme, Nina Schrank, plastics campaign lead  at Greenpeace UK said:

“This is an utterly cynical move and yet another sign of the government’s dismal environmental record. This isn’t about helping people struggling with the cost of living but simply letting big polluters off the hook. The simple fact is that big companies who are pumping out single-use plastic need to produce far, far less of it in the first place. The whole point of this scheme was to make sure it’s big plastic polluters, not the public, who pay to clean up this huge mess of their own making.

There’s overwhelming public support for cutting plastic waste yet the government is willing to break a key manifesto promise to please plastic producers. It’s increasingly clear the real winners from any rolling back of green policy are big plastic and carbon polluters with the public left squarely as the losers.”