Beckett: summit

Margaret Beckett has convened a summit to examine how Britain's poor record on recycling waste can be improved.

Bringing together representatives from local government, green campaign groups, the Environment Agency and business, the "summit" looked at environmentally-friendly ways to dispose of the UK's waste.

The meeting coincided with calls for the government to do more to promote waste recycling in order to reduce the need for controversial incinerators.

The government's waste strategy, however, does involve an expansion in the number of incinerators.

Speaking on Wednesday, Beckett said that more incinerators would be required to ensure that Britain complied with tough EU regulations on waste management.

However, she said ministers would look at alternatives where appropriate.

"What there is no doubt about is that when the waste strategy was decided, a somewhat greater role not a vast role but a somewhat greater role was intended for incinerators than we are at present on course to deliver so we need to look at that again," she said.

"What we do have to do is say, if we are not going to have the amount of incineration capability that was originally thought, does that mean we have to do something else."