§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to encourage the recycling of(a) waste plastic and (b) waste silage film from farms. [48260]
§ Mr. MeacherWaste plastic packaging, of which some 1.7 million tonnes is expected to arise in the UK waste stream this year, is one of the materials covered by the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended). Since the introduction of these Regulations in 1997, and in particular the recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste which took effect in 1998, the amount of plastic packaging waste recycled has risen from 7 per cent in 1998 to 12 per cent at the end of 2000. Final outturn figures for 2001 are not yet available, but we expect this to have risen to around 15 per cent last year.
We will be addressing the question of how to deal with waste non-packaging farm plastics, including waste silage film from farms, in the forthcoming consultation document on agricultural waste. We will consider whether a statutory scheme should be introduced in the light of responses to this consultation exercise.