City Hall could introduce a plastic bottle tax after the water containers were one of the main culprits of litter in the Thames.

On average, Londoners buy 3.37 plastic bottles of water each week, more than anywhere else in England, it has been claimed.

After the success of the plastic bag 5p charge which saw an 85% reduction in the use of plastic bags, members of the London Assembly 's Environment Committee discussed a potential new tax on Wednesday (February 22).

Single-use plastic drinks bottles are one of the main forms of litter in the Thames

Around 15 million bottles a year are used, and Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage said many are not being recycled and end up in the rivers and float down to the coastlines.

Speaking at the meeting, he said: "We need to look at measures to stop them at source, clearly our systems aren't keeping pace with the food on the go market, what we see every day when we're moving around London.

"It escapes into the environment."

The Environment Committee debated the issue of water bottle tax on Wednesday (February 22)

Fiona Llewellyn, project manager of #OneLess campaign, said it is an important topic to debate because "a plastic bottle takes between 450 to 1,000 years to bio-degrade".

Deposit return systems - a small charge which can be redeemed back when bottles are returned - was considered as another option to reduce waste.

Creating a mobile application to tell people where to get water re-filled was another idea discussed which would reduce bottle buying.

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Should there be a plastic bottle tax to reduce rubbish?

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