§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what percentage of packaging waste that is currently reprocessed is generated from(a) industrial waste, (b) retail waste and (c) local authorities; and if he will make a statement. [141178]
§ Mr. MullinBusinesses that are obligated to recover and recycle specified tonnages of packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations are not required to establish whether the packaging waste is derived from the commercial, industrial or household waste stream. However, of the tonnages of packaging waste that flow into the waste stream in the UK, the amounts of each of the main packaging materials that arise as waste in(a) the commercial/industrial and (b) the household (i.e. collected by local authorities) waste stream are as follows:
Commercial/industrial stream (%) Household waste stream (%) Total tonnage in waste stream Paper 87.5 12.5 3,855,000 Glass 16 84 2,200,000 Aluminium 5 95 120,000 Steel 29 71 750,000 Plastics 35 65 1,678,900 As targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste rise, it is likely that greater amounts of packaging waste from the household waste stream will be collected and recovered.
§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of progress towards achieving his target of 793W a 28 per cent. increase in the recovery and recycling of packaging materials up to the end of 2001; and if he will make a statement. [141179]
§ Mr. MullinWhen the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 Regulations came into force, recovery was at 30 per cent. of which recycling made up around 27 per cent. By the end of 1999 we had reached 38 per cent. recovery and we expect to reach 50 per cent. in 2001 in line with the EC Directive target. We are already meeting the Directive's recycling target of 25 per cent.
Businesses obligated under the packaging Regulations have been working towards the target levels of packaging waste recovery in the EC Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste since the Regulations came into force in 1997. The Directive requires the UK to recover 50 per cent. of packaging waste by 2001. In our estimation, the UK's recovery of packaging waste will have to increase from around 38 per cent. at the end of 1999 to reach 50 per cent. in 2001, i.e. an increase of some 12 percentage points or, in tonnage terms, just over one million tonnes. We would expect further progress to be made in the course of 2000 but final figures for 2000 will not be available until mid 2001.
§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the impact of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 on the recovery and recycling infrastructure in the last three years. [141180]
§ Mr. MullinIn the three full years in which the recovery and recycling obligations under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 have been in effect, the recovery and recycling infrastructure in the UK has had to develop to deal with increasing amounts of reprocessing in order to meet interim targets under the Regulations.
The following table shows the interim targets in the packaging Regulations, the tonnage of packaging waste estimated to flow into the waste stream in each of the three years, and the amounts of packaging waste recovered and recycled.
1998 1999 2000 Targets (recovery and recycling)—percentage 38 43 45 7 10 13 Tonnage in waste stream—million tonnes 10.2 9.2 9.2 Recovery (recycling)—tonnes 3,338,705 3,497,647 12,577,982 (2,890,351) (3,006,342) — 1Up to end September 2000 only In 2001, the tonnage of packaging flowing into the UK waste stream is estimated at 9.3 million tonnes, 50 per cent. of which must be recovered if the Directive targets are to be met. The UK recovery and recycling infrastructure will therefore have to deliver some 4.65 million tonnes of packaging waste recovery next year.