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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to increase the recycling of concrete materials.

Construction is one of the key sectors identified for action in ‘Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste’, the new Waste Prevention Programme for England, published in July 2023. It sets out our priorities for action to manage goods and materials in accordance with the waste hierarchy.

As part of this we have committed to:

• Work with the industry through the Green Construction Board to promote the adoption of strategies aligned with the Routemap to Net Zero Avoidable Waste in Construction. This includes key targets to eliminate all but hazardous construction and demolition waste to landfill, and work towards zero avoidable construction and demolition waste by 2050.For information, in 2020, the UK generated 59.1 million tonnes of non-hazardous C&D waste, of which 54.8 million tonnes was recovered. This represents a recovery rate of 92.6%.

• Continue to support the Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials, which includes concrete, as part of a four-year £30 million National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) Programme. This will deliver research, innovation, and the evidence base to move towards a resilient UK circular economy.

• Work with the industry to explore policy interventions to support the design of construction products to encourage greater reuse and use of recycled materials.