§ Mr. CanavanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what funds have been made available to support research into the development and promotion of alternatives to peat; and if he will list the companies, institutes and research establishments which have been supported by these funds.
§ Mr. McLoughlinMy Department promotes the recyling of waste material, including the composting of its degradable fraction, and has recently funded two projects under DEMOS, the DTI's environmental management options scheme, providing:
- (i) A grant of over £400,000 to South West Water, Devon Waste Management and Focsa Services (UK) Ltd., to demonstrate the feasibility of co-composting of Municipal Solid Waste and Sewage Sludge.
- (ii) A grant of over £150,000 to Motherwell Bridge Envirotec, Environmental Energy and Newcastle university to demonstrate an anaerobic digestion plant for the treatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.
My Department is also seeking to overcome a major obstacle to increased use of composted materials—the lack of recognised standards—by funding a specialist from Warren Spring laboratory to participate in CEN work to develop European standards for soil conditioners arid growing media.
All this work has the potential to result in the development of composted materials which could serve as alternatives to peat.
I should add that the Department of the Environment has the lead on research into composting techniques in the context of waste management, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food also supports some research into growing media.