They will focus on making packaging producers pay the full cost of dealing with waste, a plastic packaging tax, introducing a consistent set of materials collected across England for recycling and introducing a deposit return scheme (DRS).

These will make up a key part of government’s upcoming Environment Bill, which will be introduced before the summer holidays.

Consultation details will include consistent labelling on packaging for consumers to fully understand what can and cannot be recycled.

However the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) said the consultation focuses on resident confusion when it ought to look at material type, which it argued needed to be addressed more urgently than the collection process.

Introducing comprehensive and frequent collections will create more reliable services for householders while retaining local flexibility, Defra said.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging is also predicted to raise between £800 million and £1 billion a year for recycling and disposal

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Separate weekly food waste collections are planned to be introduced, plus the possibility of free garden waste collections for households with gardens.

Two different models for a DRS, “all-in” or “on-the-go”, will be considered, plus a tax on plastic packaging which doesn’t include at least 30% recycled content.

This will be introduced from April 2022.

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