Written question WQ99031

The Welsh Government’s priorities for improving waste services are to reduce waste, keep materials in use for longer and continue improving recycling performance.

We are proud that Wales is already the second highest performing nation worldwide for municipal recycling. We will continue to work in partnership with Local Authorities to further improve and decarbonise recycling services, supported by the provision of capital funding for infrastructure improvement and expert advice.

We are also committed to the ‘polluter pays’ principle and its role in encouraging the collection of more useful materials to feed back into our economy. Our continuing work on the Deposit Return Scheme and our ongoing collaboration with the UK Government in relation to the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme are good examples of this as we move towards a more circular economy.