DEPOSIT RETURN SYSTEM - SINGLE DRINKS CONTAINERS

That this House is aware of the recent report from the Marine Conservation Society which showed that single use drinks containers make up over 10 per cent of litter found to be on UK beaches and frequently to be found amongst the top 10 litter items found in that organisation's annual Beachwatch Survey; notes the results found in the 2014 International Coastal Cleanup Challenge which revealed that along 23 kilometres of beach surveyed in Germany, which operates a deposit return system for such containers, only 552 such items were identified against 8,295 recovered from a similar beach elsewhere; and calls on the Government to urgently support the mandatory introduction of such a deposit return system into drinks packaging produced in Britain.