§ Paul FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures she(a) has introduced and (b) plans to introduce to encourage the recycling of tyres for (i) road fill material and (ii) other purposes. [164306]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Government have supported research into a wide variety of uses for waste tyres, including their use in roads. A number of trial stretches of roads incorporating rubber crumb from waste tyres1368W have been laid for evaluation purposes. Funding support for relevant projects, through programmes such as that run by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, continues to be available.
The Government have no plans to introduce material-specific measures for tyres, although they are considering whether the general framework under which waste tyres are disposed of and recovered could be usefully strengthened. Against that background. initial estimates indicate that value was recovered from around 80 per cent. of the over 400,000 tonnes of tyres disposed of in 2003, and further progress is anticipated during 2004.