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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April to Question 245965 on Recycling: Schools, if he will make an estimate of the number of schools which have to pay for their own recycling collections.

Defra does not hold information on the number of schools that are charged for the collection and/or disposal of their recycling, therefore we are unable to make an estimate of this number.

The Resources and Waste Strategy highlights our plans to review the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, which set out charging arrangements for different categories of waste. However, Defra has no plans at present to make an assessment of the environmental effects of charging schools for their recycling collection.

Defra are committed to increasing both the quality and quantity of recycling materials from schools, businesses and other not for profit organisations. Our consultation ‘Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collections in England’, which closes on 13 May, seeks views on how we can do this.