London – Recycling plastic materials “doesn’t work” and “is not the answer” to threats to global oceans and marine wildlife, Boris Johnson has said.
Answering children’s questions ahead of the COP26 climate change summit, the prime minister said reusing plastics “doesn’t begin to address the problem”.
Instead, he said, “we’ve all got to cut down our use of plastic”.
The Recycling Association said the PM had “completely lost the plastic plot”.
The association’s Simon Ellin told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme Johnson’s comments were “very disappointing” and seemed to conflict with government policy.
But some anti-plastic campaigners praised the prime minister’s stance and urged him to follow it up with measures to dramatically reduce plastic at source.
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, said: “Less than 10 per cent [of plastic] is actually recycled in the UK. Despite being touted by industry as a solution to the problem, all it has done is justify overproduction and created an industrial addiction to this indestructible, toxic material.”
During the special event organised by Downing Street, Johnson told an audience of eight to 12-year-olds that rather than relying on recycling, people should reduce their consumption of plastic products.
Tanya Steele, chief executive of the World Wide Fund for Nature, told the event: “We have to reduce, we have to reuse – I do think we need to do a little bit of recycling, PM, and have some system to do so.”
But the PM said it was a “mistake” to think society can recycle its way out of the problem, and added: “It doesn’t work.”
Asked later about Mr Johnson’s comments, his official spokesman said the PM continued to encourage recycling – though he said relying on it alone would be a “red herring”. (BBC)
