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Refuse Collection

The interesting question that the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West addressed earlier was on garden as opposed to kitchen waste. Some of the latter can be composted, such as vegetable waste, but some cannot, such as meat waste. Clearly, if people composted kitchen waste, the weight of the municipal waste collection would fall. However, the issue is more about garden waste. We have all heard examples of areas in which green waste was not collected until targets were imposed and authorities had the incentive to put more lorries on the road to collect garden waste; it is a heavy and bulky item. We should draw a distinction between the two. When it comes to encouraging home composting, there is no recognition for people who compost garden waste, but perhaps there is for kitchen waste.