§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the effects upon the cost of(a) collection and (b) management of municipal waste stream in the UK of complying with the requirement of Article 5 of the Landfill Directive to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste to 75 per cent. of 1995 levels by 2010. [114971]
§ Mr. MeacherThe costs involved with meeting the Article 5 Landfill Directive targets and other waste strategy goals were addressed in the Regulatory Impact Assessment, published with Waste Strategy 2000.
A base case was established and various policy mixes were costed against that base case. The additional costs of the policy mixes that reflect the levels of recycling, composting and recovery needed to meet the waste strategy targets amounted to a range of between £3.4 billion and £7.7 billion (net present value) over the 20-year period 2000–20.
Waste Strategy 2000 stated that the proposed targets for the recovery and recycling of municipal waste may not impose net additional costs if it is expected that a broad mix of waste management options will be required to meet the Landfill Directive targets; and that reliance on incineration and composting is unlikely to be viable.