asked the Secretary of State for Industry what consideration has been given to supporting developments in the EEC towards common policies on waste paper problems, particularly any aspect tending towards market stability.
My Department is represented on a Working Group on Waste Paper set up by the EEC Commission last July to study the twin problems of reducing the dependence on imported wood pulp of the paper industries in the EEC, and the need to dispose of industrial and household waste as economically as possible. A preliminary meeting was held in July and further meetings will take place in 1977. The group will be considering, among other matters, possible methods of reducing the fluctuations which characterise the market for waste paper.