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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will review the policy of allowing organic waste to go to landfill.

There are currently no plans to review the policy on organic waste entering landfill.

A combination of measures, such as the Waste and Resources Action Programme's Love Food Hate Waste campaign and the Government's Anaerobic Digestion Strategy, are in place to reduce the amount of organic material going to landfill and drive the waste that is produced into energy recovery or recycling. Considerable progress is being made on this, with the UK on course to meet the targets set out in the EU Landfill Directive for reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste entering landfill to 35% of 1995 levels by 2020.

Current evidence suggests that introducing bans or restrictions on sending organic waste to landfill would have an impact on businesses and local authorities in terms of compliance and monitoring, risking additional cost burdens on businesses.

The EU is reviewing a selection of waste policy legislation and further details about this will be known later in the year.