Capacity For Handling Hazardous Waste

EDM number 615 in 2003-04, proposed by Sue Doughty on 11/02/2004.

That this House notes that the Government has known since 1999 that from July co-disposal of hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste will no longer be permitted at landfill sites; that the Government has failed to publish precise treatment standards for hazardous waste required from July which the industry needs in order to meet the requirements; is concerned that there will be insufficient treatment capacity and an expected fall in the number of eligible disposal sites from 218 to 37; believes that further time has been wasted in dealing with this problem by setting up a hazardous waste forum which took a year to identify issues which were known already; anticipates a rise in environmental crime resulting from lack of facilities particularly in the South East of England; agrees with Sir John Harman, Chairman of the Environment Agency, who in his speech on hazardous waste on 23rd October 2003 to the All Party Sustainable Waste Group said that 'Government needs to provide industry and regulators with clear leadership'; and calls upon the Government to address the problem of hazardous waste as a matter of extreme urgency and to ensure that the Environment Agency allows sufficient resources to deal with this and to tackle the increase in environmental crime which can be expected as a result of failure to manage this problem.

This motion has been signed by a total of 30 MPs.