More than 6,000 people all over the UK have, without fuss or fanfare, quietly set up similar collections in their own homes, workplaces, schools or community centres.

They spread the word locally, and accept waste from friends, families, colleagues and neighbours. Some buy bins and leave them at the top of their drives for strangers to chuck in their plastic. Others persuade local shops, supermarkets and even pubs to have drop-off containers there. One I speak to, Olivia McGuinnes in Derbyshire, has hundreds of crisp packets and baby food pouches currently stored in her utility room. “My husband’s not mad about it,” she admits.

Then, when these collections reach a certain quantity, they are sent off to a private company, called TerraCycle, to be recycled.

In return, the volunteers receive two things.

The first is a small donation to a charity of their choice. In George’s case, he’s earned £17,000 for a variety of good causes over six years.

The second is the knowledge they are doing their bit to save the planet from what David Attenborough – who knows a thing or two about this stuff – has called “the untold harm” of plastic waste. “I’m quite fond of the world,” muses George. “So it’s worth saving.”

Environmentalists say large and small drinks containers alike should carry a catch-all deposit of more than 15p.

But retailers say small “on-the-go” bottles cause most litter, so large bottles should not be subject to a deposit as they are mostly recycled at home.

Ministers are still considering whether to exempt bigger plastic containers from the plans. 

How do bottle recycling schemes work?

The UK proposal, part of the Resources and Waste Strategy, is likely to copy one of the schemes adopted in other countries.

In Norway for instance, the shopper pays a deposit on every bottle – the equivalent of 10p to 25p depending on size.

The consumer drinks the product, then posts the empty bottle into a machine which produces a coupon to return the deposit.

This has led to recycling rates of 97% – whereas in the UK just over half of plastic bottles are recycled.

Michael Gove turned up to discuss environment issues with ministers carrying a disposable coffee cup, despite leading the country’s efforts to tackle plastic waste.

The environment secretary has previously been pictured using a reusable cup, amid growing pressure to tackle the 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups thrown away in the UK every year.

Mr Gove even handed out bamboo coffee cups to members of the cabinet in January, after ministers were spotted bringing disposable cups to meetings.

However, the reusable version appeared to have been abandoned in favour of a plastic-lined, single-use cup as he gave evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on the work of Defra – including topics such as farming, air quality and post-Brexit plans.

All drinks containers in England, whether plastic, glass or metal, will be covered by a deposit return scheme, the government has announced.

The forthcoming scheme is intended to cut the litter polluting the land and sea by returning a small cash sum to consumers who return their bottles and cans.

Similar schemes operate in 38 countries, and campaigners have worked for a decade for its introduction in England.

Fees vary depending on the size of the bottle or can and many use “reverse vending machines” to automate the return.

Once returned, retailers are responsible for properly recycling the containers. Deposit return schemes (DRS) have increased recycling rates to more than 90% in other countries.

At present just 43% of the 13bn plastic bottles sold each year in the UK are recycled, and 700,000 are littered every day. In Germany, a DRS was introduced in 2003 and 99% of plastic bottles are recycled.

“We can be in no doubt that plastic is wreaking havoc on our marine environment,” said the environment secretary, Michael Gove.

“It is absolutely vital we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles a day that go unrecycled. We have already banned harmful microbeads and cut plastic bag use, and now we want to take action on plastic bottles to help clean up our oceans.”

The new DRS for England announced by Gove is subject to a consultation this year and it is not yet clear whether all retailers of single-use drinks will be required to participate.

The government says it “will only take forward options from the consultation which demonstrate that they offer clear benefits and are resistant to fraud, and costs on businesses, consumers and the taxpayer are proportionate”.

FareShare currently redistributes about 13,500 tonnes of surplus food every year to nearly 7,000 charities including hospices, homeless shelters, care homes and women’s refuges (including a record amount last Christmas) but its annual target is 100,000 tonnes. Demand for surplus food has soared against a background of growing dependence on food banks and rising homelessness in the UK.

FareShare says it has the capacity – and a waiting list of charities wanting help – but needs access to more food. Its solution is a government fund that would cover the costs of storage and transport. Available to any charity or producer that incurs the costs of redistributing food, it would also save charities and other beneficiaries £150m by making free food available to them.

“It’s completely wrong that we have a situation where it’s cheaper to send thousands of tonnes of good edible food to anaerobic digestion plants or to animal feed when there are millions of people experiencing food insecurity and regularly skipping meals across the UK right now,” said FareShare chief executive, Lindsay Boswell.

The bulk of food waste in the UK comes from households, making up 71% of the total. But manufacturing contributes 17% and hospitality and food service 9%. Seasonal weather fluctuations, order cancellations and overstocking – all unpredictable – create surplus food which manufacturers, distributors and farms were not always in a position to redistribute.

Environment ministers are understood to have held informal discussions about giving farmers and food producers financial incentives to encourage them to get waste food onto tables. But FareShare says these need to lead to a level playing field so it’s not cheaper to waste food or turn it into animal feed or energy.

UK households will be forced to recycle two-thirds of their rubbish while countries that recycle the least will be “let off the hook” with easier targets, under European Commission proposals.

The Government said it was “seriously concerned” about the EC’s plans, unveiled on Wednesday, to impose a legally-binding target on most EU member states of recycling 65 per cent of all household waste by 2030.

Critics say hitting the target could be extremely costly and burdensome for families and businesses alike, and could result in councils fining households that fail to recycle or issuing smaller dustbins to physically limit black bag waste.

Ministers are also understood to be worried about the EC’s proposal to let the seven EU member states that currently have the lowest recycling rates – Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovakia – get away with lower targets.

They fear the plan effectively penalises the UK and other countries that have made more effort to hit the existing legally-binding target of recycling 50 per cent of waste by 2020.

The UK recycled 44 per cent of its waste in 2013 but is still in danger of missing the 2020 target, leaving it open to fines.

The seven worst-performing countries in the EU all recycled less than 20 per cent of their waste in 2013, with Romania on just 3 per cent. They will only have to recycle 60 per cent of their waste by 2030, under the plans.