To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans he has to set recycling targets for waste from (a) small businesses and (b) municipal buildings, including schools. (104151)

Waste Strategy 2000 set targets for the management of household and municipal waste. These included 2005, 2010 and 2015 targets for the recycling and composting of household waste (25 per cent., 30 per cent. and 33 per cent.) and for the recovery of municipal waste (40 per cent., 45 per cent. and 67 per cent.). The Waste Strategy Review consultation document, published in February 2006, proposed new targets for 2010, 2015 and 2020 for the recycling and composting of household waste (40 per cent., 45 per cent. and 50 per cent.) and municipal waste recovery (53 per cent., 67 per cent. and 75 per cent.). Waste from schools is classed as household waste.

The consultation document also invited views on how the Government could help overcome barriers to small business recycling. Proposals were made that local authorities could be asked to do more on small business waste by collecting goods for recycling, meeting new government targets for the recycling of the waste they collect, or using charging structures to increase business waste recycling.

The consultation is now closed and we are carefully considering the responses received. DEFRA published a summary of responses to the consultation on 2 August. We intend to publish the revised Waste Strategy for England in the new year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what guidance his Department has given to local authorities participating in a recycling scheme on the frequency of collection of garden waste refuse in winter. (104717)

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA) places a duty on all waste collection authorities to arrange for the collection of household waste, but it does not stipulate how often collections should occur.

The Government believe local authorities are best placed to make decisions on the waste management strategy for their communities and DEFRA does not therefore intervene in these matters.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) ROTATE programme is a free service that provides advice to local authorities on their collection and communication programmes for kerbside recycling. Further information is available from the WRAP website at:

http://www.wrap.org.uk/local_authorities/rotate/index.html.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of waste was recycled in each region in each of the last four years. (107849)

The percentage of household waste which was recycled or composted in each English region in each of the last four years, is provided in the table as follows.