Written question asked by Sarah Bool (Conservative) on Monday, 20 January 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 January 2025 (named day). It was answered by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Tuesday, 28 January 2025 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Carpets: Waste

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with the Environment Agency to prevent companies from importing waste carpet from the EU.

Answer: Waste is a commodity, and there is a legitimate global market for secondary materials. The transfrontier shipment of waste, including waste carpet, is subject to strict controls that are set out in the UK’s legislation. All waste shipments from the EU to the UK must comply with these controls. The Environment Agency (EA) is England’s competent authority and conducts compliance activities on an intelligence led, risk-based approach to ensure that imports of waste to England are in compliance with the legislative controls. The EA welcome any information regarding possible illegal movements via their incident reporting system or via Crimestoppers.

Secondary information