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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department supports local authorities to promote recycling by businesses.

Section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) places a duty on local authorities to collect or arrange for the collection of commercial waste from premises in their area if requested by the occupier and may charge for the services they provide. Local authorities may also promote waste minimisation and recycling within its authority but do not have specific duties to promote business recycling. The Government wants to increase business recycling and will set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published shortly, how we will achieve this.