§ 4. Mr. Gwilym Robertsasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will take steps to set up a National Refuse Corporation aimed at co-ordinating the recovery of household refuse, rubber tyres, scrap, mining tips, and other forms of refuse; and what studies have been made of the uses of various forms of refuse and the economies to be achieved by their recovery.
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI will send my hon. Friend available information about past studies. The working party on refuse disposal, which my right hon. Friend set up in 1967, is now making a broad study which covers the question of recovery. In the meantime I do not think that the setting up of a centralised body in this field is desirable.
§ Mr. RobertsWould not my hon. Friend agree that the present haphazard method of collecting industrial and household refuse is a national scandal? Is he aware that if waste were collected and retrieved on an organised national scale there would be a saving of many millions of £s to the economy?
§ Mr. SkeffingtonI am well aware that considerable improvement could and should be made in many parts of the country. For this reason my right hon. Friend has set up a working party.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamIs the hon. Gentleman's right hon. Friend opposed to dustmen selling direct?