Matthew has met virtually with a leading food and drinks company to discuss concerns about the recycling of food packaging.

In a virtual meeting with PepsiCo, the parent company of crisp brand Walkers, Matthew discussed the importance of flexible packaging being included in kerbside collections - along with all other plastic materials.

Currently there is nowhere to recycle ‘soft plastic’, such as crisp packets,  food wrapping, bread bags, plastic films and pet food pouches in the whole of the Hendon constituency. This type of material is not collected by Barnet Council - or most councils - because it is financially unviable as few recyclers can handle it. Soft plastics like film and bags are hard to process as they get caught in the sorting machinery, while crisp packets are made of a complex combination of plastic and aluminium, which is difficult to separate.

As a longstanding member of Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee and former Barnet Council Cabinet Member for the Environment, Matthew is looking into how to make the ability to recycle flexible packaging a priority in Barnet.