§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how his Department intends the producer responsibility industry group plan to be financed; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe Government have introduced enabling powers in the Environment Bill to place an obligation on businesses to recover and recycle packaging waste. Individual businesses may choose to discharge this obligation by acting alone or by collaborating with others in an "exemption scheme" which will deliver targets on their behalf. The internal financing of exemption schemes is a matter for business, subject only to satisfying the requirements of competition legislation and the registration requirements of the environment agencies.
§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what progress has been made to produce a plan for recovering between 50 per cent. and 75 per cent. of all packaging waste by the year 2000;
(2) what are the criteria by which his Department judged the plan for reducing waste produced by the producer responsibility industry group.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe producer responsibility group was formed in 1993 to respond to the challenge to businesses concerned with packaging to develop an industry-led approach for delivering recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste. Among the objectives which Government set the PRG were the need for an effective organisation, spanning all the relevant business sectors, which can both draw up a plan and put it into action; and the need for a commitment by business that it will meet the costs necessary to fund new collection and processing capacity, together with a mechanism for raising the necessary finances.
The PRG produced its final report in November last year and has now disbanded. Work on refining its approach and the ways in which industry might organise
412W
Estimated emissions of sulphur dioxides (S02) by source category for 1979–1992 Thousand tonnes 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Power stations 3,242 3,007 2,847 2,748 2,631 2,589 2,627 2,722 2,830 2,728 2,640 2,722 2,534 2,427 Domestic 264 226 210 202 195 158 202 197 171 155 138 118 115 103 itself to meet recycling targets has been taken forward by the VALPAK working representative advisory group—V-WRAG.
§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what legislation the Government have introduced to reduce packaging.
§ Mr. AtkinsHaving considered the request from businesses in the packaging industry, we have included three clauses, numbers 76-78, in the Environment Bill which will, subject to parliamentary approval, establish enabling powers to promote or secure the re-use, recovery and recycling of products or materials when they become waste. We propose to apply these powers to packaging waste.
§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates have been made of the rise in packaging over the last 10 years.
§ Mr. AtkinsNo estimates exist as to variations in the amount of packaging as a whole over the last 10 years. The Department of the Environment "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics", however, does include statistics for consumption of some types of recyclable packaging. This publication is available in the Library.