Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 183BB: 183BB: Schedule 5, page 55, line 36, after ““waste,”” insert— ““( ) to produce less commercial, industrial or service waste,”” The noble Lord said: I am sure that we are all sustained by the Minister’s optimism, as we have been throughout our consideration of the Bill. I start by congratulating him and the Government on the announcement of the appointment of the noble Lord, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, as the chairman of the Committee on Climate Change. I speak for the Opposition and, I am sure, for the whole House in acknowledging the fact that a significant, distinguished and experienced person now has this important role. It is very good news for the Bill. I say at the outset that we welcome the inclusion of the subject of waste in the Bill and the idea of piloting. The amendment is designed to address the area of waste—or, as it is now often referred to, strategic resource materials—that the schedule fails to identify. I say ““strategic resource materials”” as I think that the time will soon come when what we think of as waste and as a liability will be seen as a resource of value. My noble friend Lord Crickhowell identified many issues in this regard. Our amendment would broaden the scope of the waste reduction provisions to include industrial, commercial and service industry waste, particularly as those sectors inevitably produce much waste that is not greatly different from domestic waste. I acknowledge the progress that has been made by business and government in recognising the importance of commercial waste recycling. However, it is a remarkable deficit that there is no specific mention of commercial and industrial waste in the Bill. As my noble friend Lord Cathcart has pointed out, many shops, offices and commercial premises produce waste that currently ends up in landfill. They are banned from putting hazardous waste in normal collection points and many of them are having great difficulty in arranging collection of small, often irregular, quantities. The rest of their refuse is often domestic in nature—paper, cardboard and discarded food—for which they adopt a variety of schemes. Food-contaminated waste is a real headache for businesses to get collected. I know that McDonald’s, although it is not necessarily seen as the hero of the hour on many issues, is extremely sensitive to opinion on this matter and spends a lot of time seeking to deal with this problem. Some businesses pay for council collection and there appears to be considerable scope for waste reduction schemes to include them. Others join together and book a skip from time to time, although certainly much of this waste does not go into recycling. Will the Minister explain why such a large sector of the economy and the community is apparently to be excluded from the important provisions of this schedule? I beg to move.