Recycling of Waste (Hansard, 14 May 1984)

§ Baroness Ewart-Biggs
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the Department of the Environment continues to encourage the implementation of waste recycling schemes where they are both economic and practicable. It provides advice on many aspects of recycling through its advisory publications and its meetings with representatives of waste disposal authorities and the private sector. The Government continue to give support to bottle banks and can recycling schemes.
In addition, the department is giving substantial assistance to local authorities in the development of the experimental plants at Newcastle and Doncaster for deriving fuel from waste. The department is shortly to publish a general guide to the use of waste as a fuel, and is one of the parties arranging a seminar on resource recovery in October. Finally, I would draw the attention of the House to the announcement on 15th March, by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment that, once existing supplies are exhausted, all letter-headed paper and matching envelopes used in the department and the Property Services Agency will be made of 100 per cent. recycled paper.

§ Baroness Ewart-Biggs
My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord for that very full Answer. I should also like to congratulate his department on using recycled paper for its official writing paper. On the first point, can the noble Lord tell the House whether there is any prospect of other Government departments following the good example set by the Department of the Environment in using recycled paper for its official writing paper?
On another aspect, is the noble Lord aware that recent figures reveal that Britain, in the company of Ireland, is at the bottom of the league in terms of recycling glass and that these figures also reveal that the Netherlands, which is at the top of the league, recycles 48 per cent. of its national consumption of glass, whereas Britain, at the bottom of the league, recycles only 8 per cent. of its national consumption of glass? Therefore, would the noble Lord not think that there must be some encouragement, perhaps in terms of legislative action, to try to bring Britain up in line with her European partners in this aspect at any rate?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, so far as the noble Baroness's first point is concerned on the use of recycled paper in Government departments, of course it is for each Government department to make a decision on its own costing and the quality required, because in all recycling the important things are both the economics and the final quality. But most certainly I would expect other Government departments to give serious thought to this in the near future.
So far as the glass recycling question is concerned, I understand that 50 new bottle-bank schemes were established in the United Kingdom last year providing an additional 12,000 tonnes of glass for recycling and extending coverage of the scheme to 1,840 sites in nearly 300 district council areas. From all sources 1136 some 17,000 tonnes more glass were recovered in 1983 than in 1982, making the total of recycled glass last year around 127,000 tonnes. The picture is not quite as black as the noble Baroness may have painted it.

§ Lord Sainsbury
My Lords, is the Minister aware that there are no fewer than 1,800 bottle banks in the United Kingdom, and that if it was not for litter nuisance and vandalism there would be many more?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, this is certainly part of the problem. However, as I said to the noble Baroness in answer to her last supplementary question, I am well aware that not only are there just over 1,800 bottle banks in this country but, where appropriate, local councils and others are introducing more of them.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, is it not the case that over 6 million tonnes of waste paper are produced in this country each year and only about 2 million tonnes are recycled? Does this not mean that at the present time every year a forest the size of Wales, I am told, is cut down to supply our paper needs in Britain? Is this not a scandalous state of affairs? What is being done about the waste of trees, the waste of resources and of job opportunities which arise?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the noble and learned Lord is perfectly correct in the figures that he gave. I should not like to go so far as to say the demolition of a forest the size or the area of Wales. I can tell the noble and learned Lord that 2 million tonnes—56 per cent.—of our total fibre requirements are met by the paper and board industry from the recycling of waste paper. Again this is a step in the right direction but when paper is recycled the quality drops. A high grade coated paper, which of course is coated with china clay, cannot be used again for the same purpose, which is why ultimately at the bottom end of the scale such paper can only be used for such products as newsprint.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, would the noble Lord consider sending a representative to the University College of Wales. Cardiff, where massive work has been done on the use of waste paper in a great many ways?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, since I can obviously improve my education I should be delighted to go myself if I had an invitation.

§ Lord Irving of Dartford
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that for some months I have had a Motion on the Order Paper to call attention to the whole question of reclamation and recycling of waste material of every kind? Will the noble Lord support this request and use his influence with the usual channels so that the House might get an opportunity to debate this important subject?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Irving, credits me with more influence than I have with the usual channels. However, I am quite certain that the matter to which he refers will be taken up by the 1137 usual channels, and I hope that he has the result that he desires.

§ Lord Mayhew
My Lords, might not a great deal of Government correspondence be recycled before being dispatched to recipients?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, if I count the number of papers which I have seen before, which arrived on my desk this morning, I do not think that there would be any doubt in my mind that the noble Lord's question is unnecessary.

§ Lord Schon
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that considerable progress has been made in the British cement industry to utilise waste material in cement kilns as fuel? Is he aware that in one plant in Wiltshire some 10 per cent. of the total fuel is replaced by processed domestic refuse? In two other plants, one in Derbyshire and the other in Staffordshire, up to 10 per cent. of the fuel normally needed is replaced by the burning of used vehicle tyres.

Lord Skelmerdale
Yes, my Lords, I am well aware that the cement-making industry, on which the noble Lord is an expert, has taken a strong position in the recycling of waste and the use of recycled waste as a fuel. I hope that many more industries would follow the same lead.

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, is the Minister aware that his statement that it is up to each Government department as to its policy in this matter surprised many noble Lords? Is there no co-ordination in these matters? Is there no general drive for efficiency in saving in this Government?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
Yes, my Lords, most certainly there is, but I also made the point that what is important and has to be considered each time on its merits are both the quality of the product and the economics. These will vary from department to department, which was the point I was trying to make.

§ Baroness Ewart-Biggs
My Lords, would the noble Lord agree that this whole subject of recycling waste has the interest and enthusiasm of the general public? Therefore, is it not right that a greater framework for them to instil their interest and co-operation should be created? One way to start to do this is to pay respect to the suggestion of my noble friend and have a debate in this House about all the different ways that this can be done.

Lord Skelmerdale
My Lords, there has already been some consideration given to this matter in the report of the Select Committee on Science and Technology under the chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Gregson, and the Government are following this up.

§ Lord Leatherland
My Lords, is the Minister aware that if there is not a market in this country for waste paper, waste textiles, and waste metals it might be possible to build up a good export trade in these materials? Is he aware that when I was in charge of the 1138 costing system of the Birmingham refuse disposal department, we built up quite a big trade in the export of these materials which would have otherwise been wasted in the furnaces or on dumps?

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, I hope that any opportunities for exports there are in whatever field will be energetically pursued, as they are by the Government at the moment.