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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the use of green waste as compost.

The Government supports recycling of green waste, including work to develop markets for quality compost. For example, the Government has supported the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) to facilitate the development of the British Standard Institution’s Publicly Available Standard 100 (BSI PAS 100), working with industry to deliver a robust specification which provides national standards for quality of compost. In addition, the Environment Agency has revised its Quality Protocol for compost, which sets out when compost is no longer treated as “waste”. These standards provide confidence in composted materials for end users and help producers ensure their products are safe, reliable and perform well.

The Government is also helping fund a four year research project undertaking large scale field trials and demonstration projects into the use of quality anaerobic digestate (biofertiliser) and compost in agriculture. This includes an extensive knowledge exchange programme to support the use of green waste as compost.