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PRESS RELEASE

To be released immediately: 10^th December 1999

MP CALLED ON TO SUPPORT RECYCLING

Dr Doug Naysmith, MP for Bristol North West, has been listening to the pleas of his constituents who have urged him to boost recycling, help protect wildlife and create thousands of new jobs by introducing the Newspaper and Magazine Recycling Bill into Parliament. He held a surgery on Friday (December 10) to listen to their concerns.

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) and Friends of the Earth have been urging all MPs whose names were picked in the Private Members' Ballot on November 25 to adopt the Bill.

Dr Naysmith MP was one of 20 MPs whose names were drawn in a ballot in the House of Commons. These 20 MPs will be able to introduce a new Bill into Parliament with a good chance of it succeeding and becoming law.

The Newspaper and Magazine Recycling Bill will reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and incineration, help tackle climate change, protect wildlife rich forests and create jobs.

A newsprint bill would require newspaper and magazine publishers to collect 50 per cent of the volume of the paper they put on the market by 2010 and it would also ensure that newspapers contain 80 per cent recycled paper by the same date.

The UK currently recycles less than 40 per cent of old newspapers compared to more than 80 per cent in some EU countries.

The Bill is well supported by more than 320 MPs and organisations ranging from the Environmental Investigation Agency, Women's Environmental Network, Young People's Trust for the Environment and Waste Watch to trade organisations such as the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association and UK Waste Management Ltd.

Jane Stephenson, from Avon Friends of the Earth, was given the chance to raise the issue of the Newsprint Bill with Dr Naysmith. She said: "Friends of the Earth recognises Doug Naysmith's long standing involvement in the development of recycling in Bristol and we hope that he will support this important bill."

For further information:

Andy Nelmes, CRN Press Officer, (0117) 907 4368.

Notes for editors:

The CRN is a national umbrella organisation for more than 250 community groups, co-operatives and not-for-profit businesses in the community waste sector.

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