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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of waste exported for recycling which is contaminated and is sent to landfill or incinerated.

Rory Stewart

We are not aware of any waste exported for recycling which has had to be landfilled or incinerated due to contamination.

There is a legitimate export market for quality recyclable material – but the law is clear that it is illegal to export waste from the UK for disposal.

The regulatory framework governing waste shipments provides a mechanism for facilitating the takeback of waste to the country of export in cases where it cannot be processed as intended or in the case of an illegal shipment.

The UK environment agencies have adopted an intelligence-led approach to identify and disrupt the movement of waste intended for illegal export. Defra has been working with the agencies to find ways of strengthening their enforcement activities.