§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assistance his Department gives to the UK newsprint industry to encourage newspaper recycling(a) at a local level and (b) at a national level. [110101]
§ Mr. MullinAt present, my Department gives no assistance to the UK newsprint industry.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what recent assessment he has made of the environmental implications of newspaper recycling. [110103]
§ Mr. MullinI have taken into account a range of reports and investigations into the implications of newspaper recycling from a variety of sources. At this stage, there is no common agreement on the precise impacts of newspaper recycling in comparison with other end-of-life options.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will calculate the proportion of newsprint currently consisting of recycled material. [110105]
§ Mr. MullinAccording to information supplied by the Newspaper Publishers Association, newspaper publishers in the UK use newsprint containing both virgin and recycled paper in varying proportions, and on average recycled paper made up 52.4 per cent. of the raw material for UK newspapers in 1998.