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Packaging's parliamentary champion, Eric Illsley MP, this week raised concerns about increasing producer responsibility for packaging.

Speaking at the House of Commons Illsley said: "Packaging recovery targets have been increased. The difficulty for the industry is that it now cannot recycle much of the material collected because it is of such poor quality. Will the Department for Communities and Local Government try and improve the possibility of recycling better materials?"

Environment minister Joan Ruddock said that Wrap statistics showed that in the current market kerbside sorting is more effective for local authorities than single co-mingling.

Kerbside sort achieves the higher-quality recyclates that the industry wants to see produced, she said.

"We are providing a great deal of assistance to local authorities and giving them advice…We will not hesitate to try and get better recycling quality and levels from our local authorities," Ruddock added.