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6 Jun 2008 : Column 1192W—continued
Production of mineral waste from UK mines and quarries is connected, in particular, to the extraction of coal, slate, china clay and ball clay because of high amounts of waste per tonne of mineral extracted, and with extraction of aggregates because of the scale of that sector of the industry. It includes material that is
moved to gain access to the mineral resource, as well as mineral deposits that are uneconomic and processing wastes remaining after primary processing of minerals. The vast majority of these materials are non-hazardous and inert, and are managed by the operator at the place of operation.
There are no definitive statistics available regarding mineral waste management, as individual mines and quarries will manage wastes according to local conditions.
Following the coming into force of EU Directive 2006/21/EC on the management of waste from the extractive industries (the Mining Waste Directive) on 1 May 2006, mineral waste has to be defined by reference to, and regulated in accordance with, this directive. The Mining Waste Directive has now been transposed into national law. Mine waste facilities will be subject to the new provisions by 2012.
| (iii) Sewage sludge—England and Wales | |||||||||
| Thousand tonnes | |||||||||
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| (1) Total amounts of sewage sludge have increased as a result of the UWWT Directive requiring more treatment. (2) Sea disposal has been discontinued. (3) These disposal routes have been developed in recent years—there may have been some included in ‘other’ in previous years but the amounts would have been small. (4) Other includes beneficial uses for land reclamation and forestry and soil and compost products. Source: Water UK (Water Companies; Scottish Executive; DOE (Nl) Water Service). | |||||||||
Disposal by dumping at sea, which previously accounted for about one quarter of production, was banned in 1998 by regulations implementing the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC). The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) states that sludge should be re-used whenever appropriate and that disposal routes should minimise the adverse effects on the environment. Recycling to farmland is the current main disposal route (73 per cent. in 2005, up from 59 per cent. in 2000), followed by incineration (18 per cent. down from 22 per cent.). Disposal to landfill has significantly decreased in recent years (6 per cent. down to 0.5 per cent.) and use in land restoration/reclamation has increased (6 per cent. from 0 per cent.).
| (iv) Dredged materials—UK | |
| Million tonnes | |
| Dredged material( 1) | |
| (1) Dry weight. Source: Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), OSPAR commission. | |
Dredged materials are disposed of at sea in line with international obligations under the OSPAR and London Conventions.
| (v) Household—England | |||||||||||
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Source: DEFRA Municipal Waste Management Survey and WasteDataFlow | |||||||||||
Data from the first two quarters of 2007-08 indicate an increase in household recycling rate from 31 per cent. between April 2006 and March 2007, to 33 per cent. between October 2006 and September 2007.
Household waste includes household collection rounds (‘bin’ waste), other household collections such as bulky waste collections, waste from services such as litter collections, waste from civic amenity sites and wastes separately collected for recycling or composting through bring/drop off schemes, kerbside schemes and at civic amenity sites. Household recycling covers materials sent for recycling, composting or reuse by local authorities as well as those collected from household sources by ‘private/voluntary’ organisations. It excludes material which was collected for recycling from household sources but actually rejected at collection or at the gate of a recycling reprocessor. It includes residual waste from the household stream which was diverted for recycling by sorting or further treatment.
| (vi) and (vii) Commercial and industrial—England | ||
| 1998-99 | 2002-03 | |
| Source: Environment Agency Commercial and Industrial Waste Surveys 1998-99 and 2002-03. | ||
Recycling tonnages include estimates on the management of waste to unknown or unrecorded routes and a proportion of waste being sent to transfer and treatment processes.
| (viii) Construction and demolition—England | ||||
| 1999 | 2001 | 2003 | 2005 | |
| Note: These surveys only include construction and demolition England wastes which are suitable for processing into aggregate. Between 2001 and 2005, inert construction waste (suitable for reprocessing into aggregate) is estimated to have remained stable at around 90 million tonnes. Overall, the re-use and recycling (using crushers/screeners) of materials suitable for reprocessing into aggregates or recycled soil increased from 49 per cent. in 2001 to 52 per cent. in 2005. The amount of aggregate waste going to landfill has stayed stable in 2003 and 2005 at just over 30 per cent. The non-recycled materials are largely used for beneficial purposes such as land restoration but an estimated 18 million tonnes goes to landfill for disposal. Source: DCLG surveys on arisings and use of construction, demolition and excavation wastes | ||||
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Belarus: Human Rights
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the human rights situation in Belarus. [207959]
David Miliband: The Government continues to have serious concerns about the lack of respect for human rights in Belarus and monitors the situation closely. The Government's assessment of the situation in Belarus can be found in our latest annual Human Rights report, available at:
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