§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures are being taken to encourage the collection and recycling of waste plastic. [8504]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 22 October 2001]: The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 place obligations on certain businesses to recover and recycle specific tonnages of packaging waste, including plastic. The recovery and recycling targets for 2001 under the packaging regulations are 56 per cent. for recovery and 18 per cent. for material-specific recycling of packaging waste. We are currently consulting on recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste in 2002.
All local authorities have been set statutory recycling performance standards, to underpin the national targets established in the Waste Strategy 2000 for England and Wales, of recycling or composting at least 25 per cent. of household waste by 2005. Future standards will be considered in the light of technological advances, with the aim of maximising the recycling and composting of waste. It is for local authorities to decide which waste streams they should tackle in meeting their performance standard.
The Government have also established the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to promote more sustainable waste management through tackling the barriers to increased reuse and recycling.
WRAP has identified plastics as a priority area in its business plan to 2003–04. One of WRAP's priorities is marketing existing recycled plastic products and removing discriminatory standards. These are linked to the development of 'buy recycled' policies and a research and 362W development programme to develop plastics recycling technology and support composite product development. One of WRAP's aims is to achieve a 20,000 tonne increase in the mixed plastics processing for industrial products by 2003–04.