Gove insists 'change needs to come' while calling for plastic bottle deposit scheme

Environment secretary Michael Gove cited the 5p charge for plastic bags when speaking on how a bottle return scheme would require the "enthusiastic embrace" of retailers.

"It is the case that some of the big drinks companies have acknowledged more needs to be done,” he said, adding that he wanted to work with them “like we worked with the cosmetics industry to ban microbeads."

According to scientists, there is in excess of eight billion tonnes of plastic produced since the early 1950s, most of which now resides in landfills or scattered across the countryside, and ocean floors.

A US research team predicted in an issue of Science Advance journal, that if this trend is not corrected, that roughly 12bn tonnes of plastic waste will be discarded in landfills, or polluting the Earth’s surface by 2050.

Speaking to Sky News, WWF UK chief executive Tanya Steele, said a bottle deposit scheme would be a "first good step" to address the issue in Britain.

Gove described the plastic bottle scheme as a "great idea", he said it was integral to devising a programme that "others can buy into", noting how important it was to "make sure it will work properly before guaranteeing we will implement it."

"There's a real challenge for people like me in Government to step up to the plate and reduce the amount of plastic going into our oceans," the environment secretary added.

"It is simply not good enough to carry on as we have done so before."