Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to ensure the UK meets (a) the EU target to 50 per cent of municipal waste by 2020 and (b) the proposed EU target to recycle 65 per cent of such waste by 2030.

Rory Stewart

The UK recycling rate has increased from 11% at the turn of the century, to 44.9% now. This progress is thanks in large part to the hard work of Local Authorities and householders.

The Government is committed to meeting the 2020 EU recycling target of 50% of household waste.

Local Authorities are best placed to determine the most appropriate waste collection and recycling services in their areas and we work with them and the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (WRAP) to promote best practice.

I have asked WRAP to look at what further measures can be taken to improve recycling rates and, in particular the benefits and opportunities there are from having greater consistency in the materials collected and collection systems to enable Local Authorities to recycle more, and to make it easier for householders to put the right materials in the right bin.

The UK is still assessing the implications of the proposed recycling targets for 2030.