§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of whether the UK will achieve the targets set under the EU Directive on Packaging Waste; and if he will make a statement. [76983]
§ Mr. MeacherAs I said in my answer to my hon. Friend on 15 March 1999,Official Report, columns 466–67, the recovery rate for packaging waste is expected to have reached approximately 32 per cent. in 1998 and the interim business targets are designed to enable the UK to achieve the mandatory EC Directive recovery and recycling targets in 2001. Industry itself has reported that there was an oversupply of reprocessing capacity in 1998 compared with the targets that had to be met and this was damaging the market. The increase in the interim business recovery and recycling targets should therefore generate the necessary momentum to enable sufficient activity to be carried out to achieve the 2001 targets. A further consideration was the need for sufficient resources to be directed at generating the necessary collection and reprocessing capacity that will be needed to meet the targets in 2001. With this additional infrastructure in place the UK should be able to meet the mandatory Directive targets.
§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will take steps to provide clarification of the definition of imported materials under the packaging waste regulations. [76984]
§ Mr. MeacherGuidance on the definition of imported packaging and packaging materials was provided in chapter five of the "Users Guide", issued by my Department in March 1997, a copy of which is in the Library. This continues to reflect the Department's opinion.