§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what investigations his Department has conducted to establish the environmental energy balance through a cradle-to-grave analysis of paper production from virgin fibre and paper production using recycled materials; and what conclusions have been drawn.
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§ Mr. Eggar[holding answer 2 November 1992]: Warren Spring Laboratory, an agency of my Department, carried out a review of the environmental impact of recycling processes calling on known, available, published cradle-tograve analysis data and reported its findings in July 1992. The report, entitled "A Review of: The Environmental Impact of Recycling" concludes that, taking into account the whole lifecycle, there are very significant savings in energy consumption—ranging from 28 per cent. to 70 per cent.—and reductions in emissions to be gained by recycling paper. It notes, however, that there will always be a need for virgin fibre to replace shortened fibres lost as fines and that, in certain situations, there is a case for incineration with energy recovery of waste paper, particularly when in mixed, contaminated form. It also highlights the imbalance between United Kingdom consumption and production of paper and board as a major barrier to increased levels of recycling. I will arrange for a copy of the report to be placed in the Library of the House.
Further work on the environmental impacts from cradle-to-grave of a range of paper products, both virgin and recycled fibre based, is being carried out on behalf of the EC Commission by the Danish National Agency of Environmental Protection. The results of this work, which have yet to be published, will be used in the preparation of criteria for the EC ecolabelling scheme.