Departmental Recycling

Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether his Department is on course to meet the commitment in the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate targets to increase recycling figures to 40 per cent. of waste by 2010.

Mr. Paul Murphy
The Wales Office is currently establishing a sustainable development strategy to ensure targets are met.

We already have a robust recycling programme for white paper, mixed paper, cans, glass, plastic, cardboard and shredding. This amounts to 5,913 kgs from April to September 2007.

A system is being implemented to record the weight of rubbish disposed of by the office, to enable the percentage recycled to be calculated. This will enable us to determine whether the target is being met, or whether more needs to be done to ensure that it is.