§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will undertake a study to assess the practicability of the recently-published proposals of the Oxfam Public Affairs Unit for the more efficient collection of domestic waste and its recycling for commercial use; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MarksOfficials from my Department and the Department of Industry have already had preliminary discussions with Oxfam on its proposals. The Government's present view is that mechanical sorting offers better prospects in this country for increasing the economic reclamation of municipal waste than the 185W methods proposed by Oxfam. We are already funding an extensive programme of research into methods of reclaiming this type of waste and are helping the Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire County Councils to build fullscale prototype mechanical sorting plants.