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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2017 to Question 115103 on Electricity Generation: Waste, what steps he is taking to ensure that greater levels of biodegradable waste is disposed of through (a) composting and (b) anaerobic digestion.

Organic waste collected by local councils increased by 3.1% to 3.8 million tonnes in 2016 from 3.7 million tonnes in 2015.

1. Landfill tax continues to be the main driver for local councils to divert biodegradable waste from landfill and towards composting or anaerobic digestion. The number of local councils collecting garden waste continues to increase. In 2016–17, 317 local councils collected garden waste for composting.

2. The Government encourages local councils to introduce separate food waste collections as contracts allow. Under the Framework for Greater Consistency, The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and industry are working with local councils to collect the same set of core materials, including separate food waste. WRAP has carried out pilot projects to help local authorities collect efficiently and increase the amount of food waste collected and sent to anaerobic digestion. In addition, WRAP published an updated household food waste collections guide in 2016. Separate food waste collected for recycling increased by 15% in 2016 to 353 thousand tonnes from 307 thousand tonnes in 2015.