To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of the waste generated by (a) his Department and (b) the Environment Agency has been recycled or composted in each of the last three years. (240890)

DEFRA recycled and composted the following amounts of waste in each of the last three years.

At this time the Sustainable Development Commission has yet to publish Government data for 2007-08.

DEFRA has increased the number of sites on which it reports from 39 in 2004-05 to 54 in 2006-07. The waste data also include laboratory waste. A large amount of laboratory waste is hazardous and cannot be recycled.

The following table shows Environment Agency estimates for waste recycled from its offices and depots for the last two financial years. Prior to 2006-07 records were not held centrally and are therefore unavailable.