Asked by Lord Greaves To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is
their assessment of the current and future level of services for
the collection of recycled materials and other refuse from domestic
properties. Lord Greaves (LD) My Lords, I beg leave to ask
the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I
remind the House of...Request free
trial
Asked by
-
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of
the current and future level of services for the collection
of recycled materials and other refuse from domestic
properties.
-
(LD)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I remind the House of
my registered interest as an elected councillor.
-
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Communities and Local Government and Wales Office (Lord
Bourne of Aberystwyth) (Con)
My Lords, noble Lords will be aware that government policy
on waste and recycling is led by the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, although we work
together closely on these issues. Councils play a central
role in achieving high recycling rates, and we want to see
them provide comprehensive waste and recycling collection
services that have the support of local house- holders. We
have provided local government with over £200 billion for
this spending period and, although councils make their own
spending decisions, we expect them to prioritise what they
do to deliver what their residents want to see and to
ensure good waste management practice.
-
My Lords, as a neighbourhood service, refuse collection and
recycling is subject to some of the worst cuts, which are
being enforced by the Minister’s department and not Defra.
As an example, in Lancashire, the county council is the
disposal authority and has been providing an annual grant
of almost £1 million to each of the collection
authorities—the districts. It is scrapping that grant from
next March because of its own financial problems imposed by
the Minister and his team. This will inevitably reduce the
amount of recycling, the frequency of collections and the
quality of service. What does the Minister have to say
about that?
-
My Lords, I have to say, first, that it is nonsense. The
department does not dictate what is spent by Lancashire—or
Pendle, the noble Lord’s collection authority. That is a
matter for them within the budget. Noble Lords may not be
aware that Pendle’s recycling rate is 35.5%, so there is
certainly room to make up to get to the national
average—but the national average is improving and we are on
course to meet our recycling obligations under European and
domestic law.
-
(CB)
My Lords, did the Minister see the alarming findings of the
BBC’s programme on the disposal of plastics and the effects
on whales, fish and other marine life described in “Blue
Planet”? What advice are the Government giving to local
authorities and others to deal more creatively with the
disposal of plastics—and indeed the replacement of plastics
by materials that can be recycled more easily?
-
My Lords, I did not have the privilege of seeing that
programme, which I regret as I heard it was extremely good.
The noble Lord is right to focus attention on some of the
challenges we face. We are improving our position as a
nation, but there is much to do. We are in favour of upping
the targets that are currently being looked at, and what that
improvement will be has yet to be announced—the current
target is 60%. The noble Lord is right about the particular
problem of marine challenges, which we are also looking at.
Black plastics are a particular problem, and we have a
working group looking at that.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, under the heading of “much to do”, will the
Minister say something about the millions of plastic bottles
that cannot be recycled and are simply being put into waste?
Can we not have positive action to cut down the number of
plastic bottles? They are a disgrace.
-
My Lords, the noble Lord will probably be aware that in the
Budget speech the Chancellor announced that we will look at
how we can tackle that problem, perhaps through taxation on
single-use plastics. He is right that bottles are a
challenge. However, we should not beat ourselves up too much:
in 2000, 13,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were recycled; by
2016, it was 343,000 tonnes. There is much to do but we are
on track.
-
(Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend say what the Government are
doing to encourage local authorities to have greater
consistency of approach in recycling?
-
My Lords, the hallmark of what we do is to say that local
residents should be involved and should give their views on
recycling—that is important. That said, good practice is
outlined in the litter strategy, and there is a litter
innovation group that considers bids for attractive and
innovative ways of tackling this. So, although consistency is
important, there are individual ideas that we should
encourage so that other local authorities can pick them up.
Recycling rates vary enormously. The best-performing area in
England is South Oxfordshire, with 66%. There are challenges
in some of the urban areas. I can see that the noble Lord,
Lord Kennedy, is anxious to get to his feet—it might apply to
Southwark, goodness knows, but I will not single out local
authorities to shame them.
-
(Lab
Co-op)
My Lords, I draw the attention of the House to my registered
interest as a councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham
and a vice-president of the Local Government Association.
Does the noble Lord agree that we should seek to always reuse
rather than put into landfill? With food waste making up 30%
of waste not set aside for recycling, will the Government
look to introduce mandatory food waste collections and a ban
on biodegradable waste going to landfill?
-
My Lords, the rubric is that we should first reduce what we
use and then recycle what we use. That makes sense: do not
use it, then reduce it or recycle it. We have looked at food
waste, and the best-performing authorities tend to ensure
that they are recycling food waste. It is a challenge for
some of the urban areas, with which the noble Lord will be
familiar; that is a consideration.
-
(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that, rather than
exporting difficult-to-dispose-of waste that cannot go to
landfill as sites become full, as we are currently doing from
the city of York to Holland, we should have energy from waste
plants across Yorkshire and the rest of the country? That
would get rid of this waste and give us an energy strand as
well.
-
My Lords, my noble friend will be aware that there are rules
under the Basel convention, to which we are a party, that
ensure that we cannot export certain waste. There is other
waste for which there is a market, which is perfectly legal
under the convention and which is of course subject to
export.
|
