Labour has appointed Sandy Martin (pictured), MP for Ipswich, as Shadow Minister for Waste and Recycling, the first ever ministerial or shadow position covering both waste and recycling.
The role will have a dedicated focus on the “world’s plastics crisis”, according to the Labour Party.
Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said: “We must urgently tackle the plastics crisis which is choking our oceans and damaging people’s health.
“As a measure of how seriously we are taking this issue, I’m pleased to appoint Sandy Martin as our new Shadow Minister for Waste and Recycling.”
Jeremy Corbyn – “We must urgently tackle the plastics crisis which is choking our oceans and damaging people’s health”
Sandy Martin was elected to Parliament as MP for Ipswich on June 8th 2017. He moved to Ipswich in 1993 and worked for Ipswich Borough Council as an advice worker at their Community Resource Centre until 2002. He was also Coordinator of Ipswich & District Friends of the Earth.
He was elected to Suffolk County Council in 1997, and chaired the Suffolk Joint Municipal Waste Management group which introduced the 3-bin collection system in 2001, raising the County’s recycling rate from about 14% to over 40%.
Sandy is a member of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, and also the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. He serves as a Vice-Chair of the County All Party Parliamentary Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Local Government.
Sandy Martin MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Waste and Recyling, said: “There is an urgent need to move beyond the piecemeal, ‘campaign of the month’ approach from the Government on plastics and work towards a whole-systems approach to reform our entire waste and recycling infrastructure.
“Dumping waste abroad where much of it ends up in the ocean is not a sustainable solution. I look forward to working with Jeremy Corbyn and the DEFRA team to bring forward policies for meaningful, systemic change on plastics, waste and recycling and to hold the Government to account on their haphazard and short-termist approach.”