Climate Change Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, for clarifying Amendment No. 183J. We certainly agree with him that any scheme introduced should be a successful one. It is hard to see how a scheme can be defined as successful before it is introduced. But he said that this was to do with fly-tipping, so that may be another factor. On the question of packaging waste, the Minister was kind enough to outline at the beginning the various schemes that the Government are proposing, but a lot of pressure must be put on the Government to seek a reduction in this kind of waste. However, it may be that simple things like plastic bags can be attacked at a more local level. When speaking to Amendment No. 183L, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, said that kitchen waste contaminated much of the general waste. We feel that it needs to be defined more closely. While it contains all the usual vegetable matter such as fruit peel and pepper cores, it can include other elements such as meat and bones. In the early days, people would not know exactly what it was that they were supposed to put in the kitchen waste bin. I have a question for the Minister. There is no great move in this country, as one finds in other parts of the world, to have what are called garbage disposal units. In a country area such as the one where I live, kitchen waste is not a problem because the dogs and the chickens out the back will eat a certain amount and you can compost the rest. But in a densely populated urban situation, kitchen waste is what makes people worry about whether their rubbish will be collected once a week or once a fortnight. There is a machine that can churn it up and put it down the drain, but whether that is frowned on in this carbon-saving world I am not sure. Perhaps the Minister can help us. We agree with Amendment No. 183N. As we have said before, the Government seem to delight in Bills that do not have enough detail in them, and this clause is one more attempt to give the Government powers to legislate without having to consult Parliament. We support the idea that a recycling scheme should be more closely defined.