Waste Disposal: Water

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the Australian practice of using drainage nets to collect plastic and other small objects to prevent them from entering rivers and seas.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 20th April 2021

Waste water treatment in the UK is largely determined by the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994. The Regulations have the objective of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of wastewater by setting minimum treatment levels supplemented by additional requirements to limit pollution from discharges. All discharges to the water environment require a permit issued by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. The Environment Agency will include the necessary conditions in water company discharge permits to limit sewage-related debris from entering rivers and seas. In the UK, rather than the Australian practice of using drainage nets, this is achieved through engineering design and the use of screens at the point of discharge to the environment.

Reticulating Splines