Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Smith and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

7. What estimate she has made of the number of green jobs that will be created by implementation of the waste review.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman)]

Britain’s waste and recycling sector is valued at more than £12 billion, employs 120,000 to 150,000 people and is forecast to grow by between 3% and 5% per annum over the next seven years. The waste review set us on the path to a zero-waste economy. It will support the sector’s transition from focusing on disposal to landfill to the greater reuse, recycling and recovery of waste material.

[Nick Smith]

If the Secretary of State adopted a 70% recycling target, as the Welsh Assembly has, an extra 50,000 private sector jobs could be created over the next four or five years. Why does England have a lower recycling target than Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland? It has the weakest targets in the UK.

[Mrs Spelman]

As I have explained before, targets in specific areas can play a role in achieving a zero-waste economy, but they can produce perverse consequences. I recently attended the Waste and Resources Action Programme conference, where it was clear that the waste industry feels that one of the things that has driven innovation and change is the landfill tax. There is no question but that the new capacity through new technology to recycle more materials is an engine of growth in the economy.