Our waste, our resources: a Strategy for England (2018).

Our waste, our resources: a Strategy for England (2018) sets out how England will preserve stock of material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy. At the same time how to minimise the damage caused to natural environment by reducing and managing waste safely and carefully, and by tackling waste crime. It combines immediate action with commitments for the coming years and gives a longer-term policy direction in line with the 25 Year Environment Plan. This is England's blueprint for eliminating avoidable1 plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Plan, doubling resource productivity, and eliminating avoidable waste of all kinds by 2050.
Chapter 1 sets out how England will invokes the ‘polluter pays’ principle and extend producer responsibility for packaging, ensuring that producers pay the full costs of disposal for packaging they place on the market; stimulate demand for recycled plastic by introducing a tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic; harness the potential of extended producer responsibility for other product types; set minimum requirements through ecodesign to encourage resource efficient product design; manage chemicals sustainably and address barriers to reuse and recycling posed by their use, through a Chemicals Strategy; develop a model for realising resource efficiency savings, working with businesses through "resource efficiency clusters". Chapter 2 focus on initiatives aimed at helping consumers take more considered actions: incentivise consumers to purchase sustainably; provide consumers with better information; ban plastic products where there is a clear case for it and alternatives exist; address barriers to reuse; support the market for remanufactured goods; encourage appropriate disposal of used products and lead by example though procurement and the Greening Government Commitments.
Other commitments and initiatives are related to waste management and resource recovery, and they include: Improve recycling rates by ensuring a consistent set of dry recyclable materials is collected from all households and businesses; reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill by ensuring that every householder and appropriate businesses have a weekly separate food waste collection, subject to consultation; improve urban recycling rates, working with business and local authorities; Improve working arrangements and performance between local authorities; drive greater efficiency of Energy from Waste (EfW) plants; address information barriers to the use of secondary materials; and encourage waste producers and managers to implement the waste hierarchy in respect to hazardous waste. Under Chapter 4, Tackling waste crime, the Strategy envisages actions to: Improve the transport, management and description of waste by reforming existing regulations; strengthen intelligence sharing and engagement to tackle illegal activity; prevent illegal activity being hidden through waste exemptions by reforming the existing regime; mandate the digital recording of waste movements, subject to consultation; toughen penalties for waste criminals. To cut down on food waste, Chapter 5 proposes: more effectively redistribute food to those who need it most before it can go to waste; consult on annual reporting of food surplus and waste by food businesses; consult on legal powers to introduce food waste targets and surplus food redistribution obligations; publish a new food surplus and waste hierarchy; promote awareness of the issue by appointing a new food waste champion. Further Chapters concern position of Britain in the global leadership, innovation and research actions and measurables.