To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what scientific research has been conducted by her Department and its agencies on alternate weekly collections of household rubbish. (143632)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 19 June 2007, Official Report, column 1659W.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research and statistical data gathering have been conducted by (a) her Department and (b) the Audit Commission on the proportion of household rubbish collected for recycling that is not recycled. (143633)

I have been asked to reply.

Local authorities are required to report quarterly data on municipal waste (encompassing household waste) to WasteDataFlow. When reporting data, authorities should specify the amount of waste collected for recycling that is subsequently rejected, at the point of collection, at a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), or at the gate of the reprocessor. The data reported to WasteDataFlow are used by the Environment Agency and DEFRA to monitor the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme.

The agency has also carried out a survey on household waste materials reclamation facilities in England and Wales. They identified and visited about 80 candidate sites to ascertain recovery and reject levels at each site, verifying this information via a visual inspection of bale quality and the overall state of each facility. The overall typical spread of reject rates for MRFs was from 5-25 per cent. with 10-15 per cent. being the average. Around 1 million tonnes of municipal waste were reported to WasteDataFlow as being processed by an MRF.

Analysis by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, based on a range of data sources, suggests that a conservative estimate of the amount of household waste collected for recycling which is not recycled is around 5-10 per cent. In 2005-06, a total of 6.87 million tonnes of waste from household sources was collected for recycling.

I am not aware of any research carried out by the Audit Commission in this area. However, the Audit Commission has published a number of guidance documents containing advice to local councils on how they can meet their statutory requirements with regards to waste by improving their waste management and adopting best practice. The Audit Commission also examines the performance of councils and the services they provide, including waste, through the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, and provides recommendations for improvement.