Fel mae Mark Reckless newydd ein hatgoffa ni, fe ddechreuwyd y drafodaeth yma mewn cyfarfod o’r Pwyllgor Cyllid yng Nghasnewydd, pan soniodd y Gweinidog am y tro cyntaf am awydd y Llywodraeth i edrych i mewn i’r posibiliad o drethi newydd ac i fynd â threth newydd o gwmpas y maes carlamu, fel petai. Roeddwn i’n dehongli hynny fel dau beth: (1), ie, defnyddio’r grymoedd sydd wedi eu trosglwyddo i’r lle hwn, ond hefyd bod yr Ysgrifennydd Cabinet yn awyddus i weld pa faes oedd mwyaf dyledus i gael priod le a defnyddio treth er mwyn newid yn y maes hwnnw.

Rydw i’n anghytuno i raddau â Mark Reckless sydd newydd gau drwy ddweud mai pwrpas trethi yw codi arian tuag at wasanaethau cyhoeddus. Mae yna bwrpas arall i drethi, a newid ymddygiad yw hwnnw, newid y ffordd rydym ni’n ymddwyn, naill ai’n gymdeithasol neu, beth rydw i’n mynd i sôn amdano yn benodol, yn amgylcheddol. Oherwydd nid codi arian bob tro yw pwrpas naill ai y lefi ar fagiau plastig neu, yn wir, y dreth tirlenwi rydym ni newydd fynd â hi drwy’r lle hwn. Pwrpas y trethi yna—maen nhw’n codi rhywfaint o arian, ond eu prif bwrpas yw newid y ffordd rydym ni’n bihafio, a newid ein hagwedd ni tuag at adnoddau prin naturiol.

Felly, rydw i jest eisiau ategu ychydig o bethau sydd eisoes wedi cael eu dweud, yn benodol gan Mike Hedges, i fod yn onest.

If we turn to some of the wasteful ways that we are using our natural resources, I think we should consider our new powers on taxation as a way of reining those in and making better use of those natural resources. So, if we look at plastic bottles, 400 plastic bottles are sold every second in the United Kingdom at the moment, 1 million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and that number’s going up by 20 per cent by 2021. So, 4 million plastic bottles a week could be prevented from littering our streets and the marine environment if we adopted some form of tax-based system. That could be a deposit-return scheme, it could be an actual tax, which Finland has, for example, and, if we extend that principle from bottles also to other petroleum-based plastic, such as polystyrene, then we have the potential, I think, for a tax in Wales that could make a real difference.

Now, in Scotland, the Scottish National Party Government has launched a detailed study on a deposit-return scheme there. We know that we have more work to do. We, quite rightly, praise ourselves for our recycling rates in Wales, but, when you look at specific things around plastics, recycling of plastic bottles in Britain, for example, is at 59 per cent. In those schemes with deposit-return schemes—countries, I should say, with deposit-return schemes—or taxation, Germany, Norway and Sweden, we’re looking at over 90 per cent recycling for plastic bottles.

We also have a real international role to play here. We’ve talked about domestic taxes, but this is a particular field where we can use our taxes to play a little international role. So, between 5 million and 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the world’s oceans each year, and, incredibly, by 2050, it’s been estimated that the oceans will contain more plastic by weight than fish. I think anything we can do here with our domestic taxes that helps us address this international crisis of plastic polluting our environment is something we could surely consider.

I would add that I think a plastic tax or a takeaway tax, or whichever combination you want to put together, would have a lot of public support. I’d be very surprised if the Cabinet Secretary hasn’t had e-mails from members of the public about this. I certainly have, and I think people are ready and prepared to look at this, because we have pioneered—as Nick Ramsay said—we pioneered with the plastic bag tax, the rest of the UK adopted it after us, and it’s been successful reducing plastic bags by 70 per cent in Wales. I would like—. That’s my pitch, I think, from my perspective, of a tax that would have wide public support, that addresses a real need of natural resource. It wouldn’t raise a huge amount of money, it has to be said, but perhaps would be, as a first innovative tax, more acceptable for many people because of that, because they would see it had a public good and wasn’t an attempt, like car parking charges or other things that are looked at as a way of raising money for some nefarious Government purpose; they would see that this is for the good of the environment.

I think this is a very good debate that we’ve initiated here, and I look forward to the work progressing. I would add one thing to the enormous complexity that the Cabinet Minister has set out, and that’s the Finance Committee, because we have a role in this as well, whatever happens, I think. I’m not speaking out of turn when I say that the Finance Committee, whichever view individual Members will take on the tax that’s proposed, we will scrutinise that tax thoroughly, and we will do so on behalf of all the people of Wales, and we will ensure that any tax proposed by the Welsh Government is fit for purpose and has the right purpose behind it.