§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Government's position is on the inclusion of incineration within local authority waste plans. [1676]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 3 July 2001]: In order to achieve more recycling the Government set statutory targets in March under Best Value for local authorities to double the amount of household waste recycled by 2003–04 and treble it by 2005–06. This has been reinforced in the guidelines on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects, which stress that recycling and composting must be at the heart of new applications for waste facilities. Incineration should only be considered where recycling is not feasible or not the best practicable environmental option.
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