The next stage of the Environment Bill came before Parliament on Tuesday, addressing a range of issues: air and water quality, conservation, nature and biodiversity, waste and resource efficiency; as well as establishing a new watchdog – the Office for Environmental Protection.

I spoke in the House of Commons on the new legislation I had put forward to the Bill, in which I called on the Government to mandate a considerable reduction in the use of single-use plastics; to set rigorous targets for this and to commit to dates by which the volume of non-essential single-use plastic products sold will be reduced. You can hear my speech in full at www.chrisloder.co.uk/plasticpollution

Less than a third of plastic in Britain is currently recycled and supermarkets are a major culprit in this, producing some 114 billion items of single-use plastics and selling 1.6 billion plastic ‘bags for life (an average 57 per UK household) in 2019 alone.

We are fortunate here to have the West Dorset Environmental Alliance, a brilliant local group providing much-needed momentum on plastic pollution; and I am grateful to initiatives such as the Great Dorset Beach Clean. However, we have a greater global responsibility, especially as the UK continues to ship up to two thirds of its plastic waste abroad to developing countries, 7000 tonnes last September by example; and that is just not sustainable.

West Dorset is not immune from air pollution either; a matter I also raised during Tuesday’s debate. Chideock has the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in the entire country from traffic on the A35, a pollution level that is more than double the Government limit. This issue is not new, it has been ongoing for years, but I have asked the Environment Minister’s assurance that she will look at this issue as a matter of priority with the new powers the Environment Bill will provide.

CHRIS LODER MP

Member of Parliament for West Dorset