To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2007, Official Report, columns 80-1W, on Domestic Wastes: Waste Management, if he will place in the Library (a) the documents outlining the assumptions about the costs of alternate weekly collections and (b) the initial report of the preliminary benchmarking project run by Be-Environmental. (142396)

I have arranged for copies of the Waste and Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) Kerbside Analysis Tool user manual to be placed in the House Library.

The aim of the Be-Environmental study was to conduct a comparison of a number of consultants' proprietary collection cost models. This formed Phase 1 of a more comprehensive study of the costs and performance of different collection systems and involved using models to determine the costs of a number of collection options.

It is not WRAP'S intention to publish this as a stand-alone report. WRAP is using the findings to inform Phase 2 and will incorporate the relevant sections in the overall study report, which is expected to be completed early next year.