§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the encouragement referred to in his replies to the hon. Member for Newham, North-West on 20 February, Official Report, column 422, will include financial assistance to help local authorities on recycling schemes when the commodities recycled may attract insufficient income to cover costs in the short term.
§ Mr. WaldegraveAlthough financial assistance has been given to the development of two experimental plants for deriving fuel from waste, Government grant is not generally available for recycling schemes. It is, however, our policy to encourage these whenever economically viable.
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§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details of the encouragement referred to in his replies to the hon. Member for Newham, North-West on 20 February, Official Report, column 422, which is at present given to local authority recycling schemes by his Department.
§ Mr. WaldegraveWe have given substantial financial and technical assistance to local authorities in the development of the large-scale experimental plants at Newcastle and Doncaster for deriving fuel from waste; we will be publishing detailed reports on these later this year. Publication of a general guide to the use of waste as a fuel is expected within a matter of weeks. In October I shall be opening a seminar on waste processing and resources recovery which my Department has organised with the Institute of Wastes Management and the Warren Spring laboratory. In addition we continually provide advice on recycling through our waste management advisory publications, participation in seminars, regular meetings with the officers from the waste disposal authorities and our informal contacts with these authorities.