HC Deb 28 April 2004 vol 420 cc1027-9W
John McDonnell

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the potential adverse(a) environmental and (b) health impacts of waste incineration arc; and what measures the Government has introduced to deal with these impacts. [163609]

Mr. Morley

An independent review of the environmental and health effects of all waste management options for municipal solid waste and similar wastes is currently being prepared. This review, which includes incineration, is in response to a recommendation in the Strategy Unit report "Waste not, Want not". It brings together for the first time, existing literature and evidence on the health and environmental effects of managing municipal solid waste. We aim to publish the report within the next month or so.

Emission standards, which seek to limit environmental and health impacts, apply to waste incinerators as they do to all energy from waste facilities, and are enforced by the Environment Agency. These are European wide discharge standards, which are equally applicable to old and new facilities. We are currently implementing the new Waste Incineration Directive (WID), which is an extremely tough directive that will further tighten the emissions standards in this country. The older generation of incinerators has now been replaced with newer, cleaner technology, and most municipal waste incinerators in this country already meet the new, tougher, standards.

Sue Doughty

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of a UK company's turnover on average accounts for the cost of managing waste for(a) chemical firms, (b) construction firms and (c) manufacturing firms employing more than 500 people. [165267]

Mr. Morley

We do not have this information in the format requested. Envirowise, which is a Government-funded programme offering waste minimisation advice to business, estimate that the average true cost of waste for businesses, as percentage of turnover, is 4.8 per cent. Only about one-tenth of this is the cost of disposing of that waste.

Sue Doughty

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what definition she has of hazardous waste; and what plans she has to amend this definition. [165268]

Mr. Morley

Hazardous waste is defined in the Hazardous Waste Directive as waste featuring on a list drawn up by the European Commission and which has one or more of the hazardous properties listed in Annex III to that Directive. Any other waste considered by a member state to display any of the properties listed in Annex III will also fall within this definition. The European Commission implemented a new list of hazardous waste in January 2002.

In England and Wales, hazardous waste is already defined in some legislation on the basis of the new European definition, for example, with respect to landfill. However, for the purposes of the Special Waste Regulations 1996, which control the tracking and movement of special waste, the definition of special (hazardous) waste is on the basis of a list of hazardous waste drawn up by the European Commission in 1994. The Government propose to replace the Special Waste Regulations with new Regulations for hazardous waste in England to come into force in 2005. These will revoke the existing definition of special waste and implement the new European definition.

Norman Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what date has been set for the publication of the Government's report on the environmental and health impacts of waste disposal. [167760]

Mr. Morley

We have received the final report from its authors as well as comments from the peer review panel at the Royal Society. We are aiming to publish the report shortly.

Mr. Drew

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the consultation paper on waste management controls is expected to be introduced. [168083]

Mr. Morley

We propose to consult later in the spring on a draft of the Regulations necessary to repeal section 75(7)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and to apply the Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive to agricultural waste and to non-mineral mines and quarries waste. We also expect to consult shortly thereafter on draft regulations which will implement the current review of waste permitting. New Hazardous Waste Regulations will also be put out for consultation later this year.