Diolch, Lywydd. Can I move Amendment 3 in the name of Paul Davies calling for sustainable development outcomes to be achieved through a more circular economy here in Wales? And, before I go into my speech, can I also echo the comments of Simon Thomas wishing Lesley Griffiths a speedy recovery?

I think it is important that we continue to promote the reduce, reuse and recycle agenda, and that’s why we’ve been fully supportive of the ambition in ‘Towards Zero Waste’, which has been set out by the Welsh Government. In fact, we were very pleased to hear the announcement that was made recently about the £6.5 million, which has been made available to businesses in order to help to promote the circular economy in Wales, because we know that, if a truly circular economy is actually developed here in Wales, it could save us in the region of £2 billion per year, which is money back in the Welsh economy that can be spent in more productive areas, so that, rather than burning waste or putting waste into landfill unnecessarily, we can actually be using that waste in a more responsible way that also adds value to our economy.

We support further investigation into deposit schemes for glass, cans and, indeed, for plastics. And it has been a welcome turnaround by some major companies in recent weeks with their attitudes towards deposit schemes. But I do wonder whether there’s more action than can be taken, particularly in terms of levy schemes sometimes. We know what a huge impact the carrier bag levy scheme had on consumer behaviour. A similar scheme was proposed, of course, by me for a chewing gum levy, because chewing gum litter is one of the banes of my life, and trying to address that problem is something that perhaps the Minister might want to comment on.

But in terms of the situation around Wales, whilst it is indeed fantastic news that we are the second country in Europe in terms of the recycling league table, and third in the world, and whilst it’s fantastic that many local authorities have made excellent progress, including Conwy and Denbighshire in the areas that I represent, I think there is more work to be done in terms of rationalising the various recycling systems that we have here in Wales. It’s entirely inappropriate that we’ve got 22 local authorities all operating different systems. There are huge efficiencies that could be realised for taxpayers in getting some of those local authorities working together in order to organise their waste collection services. It’s entirely wrong that we have such variation, notwithstanding the need, of course, to have different arrangements in very rural areas or semi-rural areas compared to urban areas, as Simon Thomas quite rightly referred to.