To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what discussions his Department has had with (i) NIEA; and (ii) NI Water on implementing an environmental quality standard on plastics in waterways.

While an environmental quality standard is not appropriate for larger plastics in waterways, NIEA does place requirements on Northern Ireland Water for the screening of Sewage Related Debris (SRD) from intermittent discharges both within the sewerage network and from Wastewater Treatment Works. SRD typically results from sanitary items being flushed and can often contain plastics. The screening obligations prevent a significant amount of larger plastics from entering waterways. In terms of smaller pieces of plastic that may not be screened, at present there are no established sampling, extraction and identification methods for microplastics in the water environment and it would not be practical to implement an environmental quality standard on plastics in waterways until such methodologies have been developed.

However, as noted in my response to you for AQW 25176/17-22 the majority of plastic pollution in waterways originates from land based sources and in that reply I outlined some of the many steps I am taking to contribute to the Executive commitment to create a plan to eliminate plastic pollution as preventing it ending up in our environment in the first place is always a much better solution.