220477 - Waste Disposal (Answered)

Mrs Anne Main
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the Waste to Bioeconomy roadmap; and whether her Department plans to provide any assistance to local authorities in relation to anaerobic digestion.

Dan Rogerson

Defra has a joint Government championship role with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in developing a Bioeconomy Roadmap, considering the opportunities of growing the bio economy sector with an initial focus on waste as a feedstock. Good progress is being made. Both Departments continue to work closely together, coordinating development of this agenda across Whitehall, industry and stakeholders. We aim to publish the roadmap in March this year.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), with funding from Defra, has supported local authority trials of separate weekly food waste collection for either in-vessel composting or anaerobic digestion and is updating its guidance on collecting food waste to be published in late spring this year. WRAP also provides advice and support more widely to small businesses and operators interested in using anaerobic digestion to process biowaste.