Funding Recycling

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 18 September 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:06, 18 September 2019

Well, yes, I certainly need to acknowledge that we need to do more in this particular area, because it is true that some of our waste is exported to Europe and, as you said, to other countries around the world, but it is important to recognise that most of it is processed here in Wales. We've supported the development of infrastructure to process our waste here, with the longer term aim to process as much of our waste here as we possibly can. Clearly, we don't want to be seeing waste being exported from the UK to other countries and not being treated properly, and we've seen some stories in the press about that.

I think the reason that we are able to have the figures, though, which you've quoted to us, is the fact that Wales is the only country in the UK that mandates local authorities to use WasteDataFlow, and that's a system for municipal waste data reporting. As part of that, local authorities are required now to report the end destination of their waste. So I think it's really positive that we have that clarity and transparency as far as that's concerned.

The Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government will be making a statement next Tuesday on recycling, and that will be another opportunity, I think, to talk about this in more detail.