To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his Department is doing to encourage a market for recycled paper and to expand industrial capacity to process waste paper; and if he will make a statement.
There is already a strong market for paper products which contain recycled fibre. Government Departments generally are important and reliable customers in this market buying general notepaper, index books, graph paper and brown stationery manufactured from recycled fibre. The letterhead paper used in my Department, including that used by Ministers and senior officials, contains recycled fibre and we are increasing the use of recycled paper in our publications.Following a successful pilot scheme, my Department will by the end of this month be collecting separately, from eight of our London buildings, high-grade office waste paper which is currently used in the production of higher-grade recycled paper.