§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek from the EC Commission a statement of the evidence for the assertion in the draft packaging directive that packaging waste contributes in a great proportion to the increase in the volume of wastes and to the saturation of landfills.
§ Mr. MacleanThe Commission has not yet produced a proposal for a directive, so it would be premature to comment at this stage on the possible contents.
§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the extent to which packaging waste as a proportion of household waste has changed over the last five years.
§ Mr. MacleanInformation on the extent to which packaging contributes to household waste has been collected only in a few recent studies. There is therefore insufficient data on which to assess changes over a period of time.
The national household waste analysis project, currently being undertaken by Warren Spring laboratory 372W and Aspinwalls on behalf of my Department, has been set up to provide better and more detailed information on the composition of household waste. The first results should be available later this year.