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Recycling

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information she has collated in respect of average journey times to transport material collected for recycling to its destination point for processing. [114262]

Mr. Meacher: No information has been collated in respect of average journey times to transport material collected for recycling to its destination point for processing.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the potential impact on the export trade of unsorted kerbside collected recyclables from English recycling schemes to Pacific Rim countries on economic regeneration in the UK, with special reference to the Government's Waste Strategy Proximity Principle. [114793]

Mr. Meacher: No assessment has been made of the potential impact on the export trade of unsorted kerbside collected recyclables from English recycling schemes to Pacific Rim countries on economic regeneration in the UK. Local authorities must dispose of waste in accordance with the Best Practical Environmental Option (BPEO) which necessitates paying attention to the proximity principle. Waste shipments for recovery must meet the strict criteria that apply to shipments of waste to non-OECD countries under EC legislation. The criteria applied to these shipments of waste for recovery include, among others, that the waste is non-hazardous, not contaminated, and that any Pacific Rim country, if not an OECD member, will have clarified to the European Commission that it is willing and able to recover the waste in an environmentally sound manner.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take action to reduce the disparity between the cost of exporting unsorted recyclables and the cost of sorting them in the UK. [114794]

Mr. Meacher: The Government's priority is to increase the amount of waste that is reused or recycled. It may be necessary to export some recyclate for recovery in order to achieve these aims. The Government however, is acting to extend the market for recyclates in the UK and has set up the Waste and Resources Action Programme to create stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products and to remove barriers to re-use and re-cycling in the UK.

Rendering Works (Lancaster)

Mr. Dawson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she intends to publish her final decision in relation to the proposed odour boundary condition at fats and proteins animal rendering works in Lancaster. [116759]

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Mr. Meacher [holding answer 9 June 2003]: I refer my hon. Friend to my reply of 11 March 2003, Official Report, column 143W, in which I stated that the Department was considering the representations received in response to the 'minded to' decision letter. That process has further necessitated making available to all interested parties copies of the representations received and inviting comments on them.

Officials will shortly be presenting Ministers with recommendations on this appeal case, based on an analysis of all the representations received. A final decision letter will issue as soon as possible thereafter.

Sellafield

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans will be put in place to reduce and eliminate the discharges of technetium-99 from the Sellafield re-processing plant. [116122]

Mr. Meacher: In 1999 we started a process to reduce discharges of technetium-99 (Tc-99) from Sellafield. In that year the discharge limit was reduced from 200 TBq/year to 90 TBq/year and, at our request, the Environment Agency commenced a review of the discharges of Tc-99, to be completed ahead of the review of all other radioactive discharges from Sellafield. As required by the Agency, BNFL are currently working to intoduce an abatement technique known as "MAC Diversion", which we hope will be operational shortly. The introduction of that technique should allow the discharge limit to be reduced to 10 TBq/year (5 per cent. of the 1999 limit) by 2006. Further scientific evaluation is currently being carried out to determine whether an alternative abatement technique, based on tetraphenylphosphonium bromide, commonly referred to as TPP, could be used to allow the discharge limit to be reduced before 2006.

Timber

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she is proposing to take on the recommendation of the ERM study into means of ensuring that government procurement policy sources legal and sustainable timber. [117603]

Mr. Meacher: I am proposing to set up a central point of expertise on timber procurement (CPET) as recommended by the Consultants ERM. Its main activities will be to assess whether third party certification schemes and other independently verified evidence comply with the Government's requirements for its timber supplies and provide guidance for officials and suppliers.

Vital Villages Programme

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funding is available in 2003–04 to the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages programme; and what funding is planned for 2004–05. [118171]

Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency currently has £17 million available in 2003–04 to fund the Vital Villages programme to help rural communities. I am

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pleased to say that demand for this funding is high and some £12 million has already been committed to grants in 2003–04.

Planning figures for 2004–05 are extremely provisional until a number of reviews have been included, including Haskins Review of rural delivery and Defra's review of priorities set out in the Rural White Paper but for the time being a figure of £21 million has been included in the Agency's current corporate plan for 2004–05 for the Vital Villages programme.

Waste Management

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans her Department has to make waste minimisation and recycling mandatory for the commercial sectors to achieve a reduction in overall commercial waste levels. [115940]

Mr. Meacher: The Department has no plans to make waste minimisation or recycling mandatory for the commercial sectors. However, there are already a number of mechanisms in place that are designed to achieve an overall reduction in commercial waste levels.

The Government have set a target to reduce, by 2005–06, the amount of commercial and industrial waste going to landfill to 85 per cent. of 1998 levels. Current estimates suggest that we are on course to meet this target.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended) set targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste and provide incentives to minimise the amount of packaging handled. Between 1999 and 2002, the amount of packaging waste sent to landfill fell from 5.7 to 4.4 million tonnes, although the 2002 figure is still provisional at this stage. The Government will additionally be setting targets for the recovery and recycling of electrical equipment.

The Government have entered into a voluntary agreement with the newspaper industry, which has seen recycled content of newspapers increase to well over the target of 60 per cent. last year. The Government are looking to enter into more agreements of this kind.

Envirowise, is a Government funded business support programme dedicated to making businesses more resource efficient, saving money by minimising waste. Last year alone, Envirowise helped UK businesses to achieve annual cost savings of over £175 million, with a reduction of 1.6 million tonnes of solid waste. It also funds the Sustainable Technologies Initiative that provides funding for research and development projects aimed at minimising waste at source.

Finally, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is helping to create stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products, and remove the barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling. This should help to make all recycling more commercially viable, including that which is produced by the commercial sector.

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Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what incentives her Department is providing to local authorities to (a) offer effective and sustained educational resources for waste minimisation and recycling and (b) reduce the amount of waste that is exported to rural Bedfordshire; [115946]

(2) what steps are being taken by her Department to ensure that authorities in London and the South East act responsibly in their waste strategies to (a) minimise waste at source, (b) rapidly increase recycling and (c) reduce the need for waste to be exported; and if she will make a statement; [115948]

(3) what incentives she will provide to encourage the London and South East waste collection and waste disposal authorities to act in partnership to develop joint waste management strategies to minimise waste and increase recycling; and if she will make a statement. [115944]

Mr. Meacher: The Strategy Unit Report 'Waste Not Want Not' recommended that the Waste Recycling Action Programme (WRAP) take forward a programme of public education and awareness. The Government has accepted this recommendation and WRAP is now in the process of drawing up the detail of the programme. The majority of the resources allocated to the programme will support local authority education schemes.

The Government have provided funding to local authorities through the Waste Recycling and Minimisation fund to enable them to increase recycling and waste minimisation in their areas. This includes funding for education and awareness programmes

We have issued guidance to local authorities on the production of Municipal Waste Management Strategies which states that the strategies will need to demonstrate how the authority will meet the objectives and targets set out in Waste Strategy 2000. We have set statutory performance standards (targets) for each local authority to increase their recycling and composting levels. A Strategy should therefore contain:

high level objectives for the service including statutory performance standards; and a time scale for achieving these;


a review of outcomes against previous targets or plans, and factors which have caused divergence;


identification and analysis of available options.

The Strategy should aim for the Best Practicable Environmental Option taking account of the proximity and self-sufficiency principles.

The Mayor of London has an obligation to produce a Municipal Waste Management Strategy for London on which he has to consult interested parties including other authorities. The Strategy should be in line with the Waste Strategy 2000. The Mayor has been given powers of direction to enable implementation of his strategy.

The Waste and Emissions Trading (WET) Bill will set landfill trading allowances for each local authority to limit the amount of waste that they can send to landfill. The Government have also announced that the WET Bill will be amended to require authorities in two tier areas (with some exceptions) to prepare a joint

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municipal Waste Strategy thus affording more opportunity for disposal and collection district authorities to work together.

All of these factors together should help reduce the amount of waste that is exported to rural Bedfordshire.

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