Councils have varying rules over what can and cannot be recycled

Cutting plastic pollution in the ocean will be a key objective of a 25-year plan to improve the environment published by Michael Gove next month.

The environment secretary will target single-use plastic as he sets out how the government will deliver its manifesto commitment “to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it”.

He is also keen to encourage retailers to reduce the number of different plastics they use, to make it easier to recover and recycle their packaging.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is investigating a fundamental shift in how recycling targets are set, ending the European Union’s system of measuring progress according to the total weight of waste that is recycled.