The shadow Environment Secretary, Rachael Maskell, has said that Labour is "absolutely" committed to retaining a recycling target of 60% by 2030 if the Labour Party is voted into Government, in the event of the UK exiting the European Union.
However, the York Central MP, who has held the shadow environment post for just seven weeks, has admitted that her team were "still developing policy" on waste and recycling despite the publication of the Party's Environment and Energy manifesto.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who pledged to prioritise renewable energy and ban fracking, made no reference to Labour's resource agenda or it's recycling ambitions, but Rachael Maskell explained that waste played a "major role" in the party's environment plan, stating she needed time to ensure its strategy is as "progressive as it can be."
She added: "We are very concerned about the regression we've seen on recycling, particularly among local authorities with a risk shift from central Government down to local Government. The lack of ambition and drive by this Government is deeply concerning."
When asked if Labour would look to retain proposals put forward in the Circular Economy Package, including a 60% recycling target for England by 2030, the shadow minister added: "Absolutely. We don't want to see any regression on that front and the EU has very much been about, particularly in Conservative Government, holding up these measures. I think it's naive to think things will progress under voluntary approaches. They have to be driven through a framework which makes things happen because if you're talking about steering a cultural change through a voluntary approach, it will be very slow. These matters are more urgent than that."
The Shadow Environment Secretary was also asked whether she supported her predecessors campaign to make food waste collections by councils mandatory, she commented: "Mandatory is the way forward it's about a totally different approach to waste management, to not just put it in the bin. This comes back to educations and consumption. Why are people buying in excess of what they need? Young people today are a captive audience."
