Waste (Hansard, 19 September 2002)

§ Mr. Sayeed
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the revised European Waste Catalogue and Hazardous Waste list published in February 2001 will come into force in the United Kingdom. [69234]

§ Mr. Meacher
The UK will implement the European Waste Catalogue which now incorporates the Hazardous Waste List as part of its review of the Special Waste Regulations. A second round of consultation on the review will take place later this year and amended regulations are likely to come into force during 2003.

§ Jeremy Corbyn
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is for disposal of waste by landfill for each London borough in(a) the current year and (b) each of the last five years; and what her Department's prediction is for 2003–04. [71111]

§ Mr. Meacher
Estimates on the disposal of waste by landfill are collected from London boroughs in the Department's annual Municipal Waste Management Survey. Four year's results from 1996–97 to 1999–2000 are set out in the table below. The latest data for 200001 will become available in August.
In view of local authority recycling and composting targets and the forthcoming Landfill Directive targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste to landfill, we would expect to see disposal to landfill by local authorities to begin to decline over the next few years.
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§ Jeremy Corbyn
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the available landfill waste disposal capacity for London boroughs; and if she plans to increase capacity. [71112]

§ Mr. Meacher
[holding answer 19 July 2002]: The availability of landfill capacity is a commercial matter for waste management companies. It is however recognised that suitable sites for landfill in the south-east of England are diminishing and planning authorities should take this into account. While the Government accepts that landfill has a part to play in waste disposal, it believes that the re-use, recycling and recovery of waste offers a much more sustainable future.