Gummer fails to win higher target for recycled newsprint

Talks between Environment Secretary John Gummer and the newspaper industry ended in January without a new target to increase the use of waste paper in newsprint above the 40% level reached four years ahead of schedule in the first half of 1996. Friends of the Earth has attacked the target as "weak and unambitious". Meanwhile, waste paper industry sources say that a 40% recycling rate may not be achieved for 1996 as a whole due to higher imports of virgin newsprint in the second six months.