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Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food

Answer

Dr. Strang: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list each method of disposal that is (a) permitted and (b) currently in operation for (i) meat and bonemeal, (ii) tallow and (iii) each other waste product produced from cattle slaughtered under the 30-month scheme. [1453] Mr. Douglas Hogg: [holding answer 31 October 1996]: Commission regulation 716/96 requires that the carcases of cattle purchased under the over-30-month scheme-- OTMS-- are disposed of by incineration or rendered and destroyed. Meat and bonemeal and tallow produced from rendered OTMS carcases is being stored pending destruction by the best practicable environmental option, for example, incineration or burning for energy recovery at power stations. The only other waste products from the slaughter of OTMS cattle are blood and gut contents. These can be spread on agricultural land as a fertiliser for the benefit of agriculture or ecological improvement. It is a recovery operation for the purposes of the amended EC framework directive on waste and is controlled under part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994. Where blood is not spread on land in this way, it is discharged to foul sewer which is permitted subject to consents issued under the Water Industry Act 1991. The independent Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, which advises Ministers on bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has considered the current and proposed methods of disposing of cattle waste and concluded that they are safe. Specifically, in relation to the spreading of blood and gut contents on land, it concluded that there was no reason to recommend that this practice should be prohibited or thought to be inadvisable.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

1453; 284 c580W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Cattle Diseases EU law Disease control Fertilisers Waste disposal BSE