§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the comparative position of the United Kingdom in relation to each other EU country regarding progress towards meeting the requirements of the Landfill Directive. [17634]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 23 November 2001]: The Landfill Directive was due to be transposed into domestic law by 16 July 2001. Consultation on a set of draft Regulations to implement the technical and regulatory requirements of the Landfill Directive in England and Wales closed on 26 October 2001. The Government will be laying regulations before Parliament shortly. In advance of the regulations coming into effect the Environment Agency is using its existing powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Pollution and Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 to apply the Directive's requirements to any permits issued in the interim.
We have also consulted on a tradeable landfill permit scheme to implement the targets in Article 5 of the Directive for the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill and will bring forward primary legislation to introduce such a scheme as soon as parliamentary time permits.
Enforcement of Directives is a matter for the European Commission and any infraction proceedings for not implementing the Directive fully or on time would be between the member state concerned and the Commission.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to develop central monitoring of the amount of waste collected for recycling which ends up in landfill sites. [17636]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 23 November 2001 In theory all material collected for recycling should be recycled, but inevitably there will be losses. Some mixed material may be lost in the sorting process (for example at Material Reclamation Facilities). Material may also be rejected due to contamination, or sent for disposal due to the lack of a suitable market for the recycled material.
There are no current plans to centrally monitor the amount of waste collected for recycling which ends up in landfill. However, in the case of local authorities, we are looking at the way we measure household recycling rates in the Municipal Waste Management Survey to try to ensure that the rates reflect material that was both collected for recycling and actually sent for recycling. In the current 2000–01 survey we are asking for the percentage of materials collected for recycling and composting which were rejected at Material Reclamation Facilities. To ensure that such losses are minimised it is important to support markets for recycled materials 1029W through initiatives such as WRAP. It should also be noted that the best value statutory standards for household recycling rates are on the basis of material sent for recycling, not that which is collected.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she is taking to enable each local authority to provide doorstep collection of recyclable waste. [17639]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 23 November 2001]: It is a matter for local authorities to decide how best to meet their Statutory Performance Targets on recycling. To enable them to meet the challenging Statutory Performance Standards for recycling, we are however, providing major extra funding. By 2003–04 revenue support in the relevant Standard Spending Assessment area will have risen £1.1 billion over 2000–01 provision. Spending Review 2000 also provides £220 million for PFI waste schemes over the spending review period and a £140 million ring-fenced fund for waste and recycling. £50 million of New Opportunities Fund moneys will also be available over the next two years to support community sector work on recycling work in the UK.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to encourage a reduction in non-domestic waste. [17637]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 23 November 2001]: Our record on managing industrial and commercial waste is already better than on domestic waste. Nevertheless in order to encourage businesses further to reduce waste and to put to better use any waste that is produced the Government in Waste Strategy 2000 have set the target to reduce by 2005 the amount of industrial and commercial waste sent to landfill to 85 per cent. of that landfilled in 1998.
There are initiatives already in place to help industry. The Envirowise Programme aims to demonstrate the benefits of managing resource use and reducing the environmental impact to companies across the whole of the UK.
The programme encourages the establishment of waste minimisation clubs. The clubs offer a means by which businesses can make environmental improvements.
The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control regime will also have a role to play. Those regulated under the regime will be required to abide by the general principle that waste production should be avoided and that where waste is produced it should be recovered unless technically and economically impossible.