§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
With regard to the 81 herbicides and pesticides that it will no longer be legal to use after 31 March 2004, whether:
- (a) a media campaign has been undertaken to make gardeners aware of this; and
- (b) members of the public will have somewhere to take products which they have inadvertently stored. [HL1751]
§ Lord WhittyThe department's strategy for avoiding the need for wide-scale disposal of unused pesticides centred on putting over the message last year to use up any of the relevant products before the end of 2003. Last month we reminded gardeners that they should carefully dispose of any remaining withdrawn products. To these ends the Pesticides Safety 43WA Directorate has undertaken the following media campaign and related publicity activities:
- advertised in Amateur Gardening and similar magazines in March 2003;
- issued press releases in July and August 2003, and February 2004;
- worked with key organisations such as the Crop Protection Association, Horticultural Trades Association and Garden Centre Association to get over the message on using up stocks; and
- provided information via its website and a telephone information line from October 2002.
The Crop Protection Association has also taken steps to brief the media, including the Garden Writers' Guild, on the withdrawals.
The withdrawal timetable for these 81 garden pesticide products is:
44WA
- 24 July 2003—last day for sale;
- 31 December 2003—last day of use; and
- 31 March 2004—last day for storage (for the purposes of disposal only).
Should members of the public have inadvertently stored any of these withdrawn products they should contact their local authority for advice. Local waste disposal authorities should make special arrangements for safe disposal of hazardous household waste, such as garden pesticides, including providing some facilities (usually known as civic amenity sites) to which this waste can be brought free of charge.