§ Mr. Maclennanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had with, and what financial assistance he has made available to, local authorities on the conversion of domestic and industrial refuse into fuel.
§ Mrs. RumboldAbout £3 million has been made available to Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire metropolitan county councils for the development of their mechanical waste sorting plants producing waste-derived fuel from domestc and trade waste. This has been augmented by funding supplied by my Department under separate research contracts for studies and development work on production of fuel from a range of waste undertaken at the Department of Trade and Industry's Warren Spring laboratory.
Our officials have held discussions on the conversion of domestic and trade waste into fuel with Humberside CC, Isle of Wight CC, East Sussex CC, West Sussex CC, and Merseyside MCC amongst others. The latter two have also received modest funding for minor studies on mechanical waste sorting.
Discussions have taken place from time to time with various bodies, including local authorities, on the recovery of energy from domestic waste as landfill gas (methane).