I wish to join my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock (Mr. Cormack) in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Trew) on his choice of subject.

My interest in the subject was first aroused when I was invited to lunch by a group called the Reclamation Industries Council. Like many other people in the country, I suspect, having received an invitation of that kind from a person whom I knew, I thought that I was going to meet a group of people engaged in an interesting but subsidiary activity. To my surprise, I found myself among representatives of an industry which currently turns over more than £2,000 million a year. It is a huge industry and one which is growing enormously.

My interest aroused, I began to look into the question of the world's resources and our rate of consumption. I use just one statistic which I found quite staggering when I began looking into the subject. It is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be 7,000 million people in the world compared with an approximate population at the moment of 3,700 million.

We have heard a great deal about growth over the last year or two. If the world were to aim for an economic growth rate of 3 per cent. and the population expanded as expected, within 25 years we would be consuming the world's resources at twice our present rate. When we consider how long it has taken to get to our present rate of consumption and realise that within 23 years that would be doubled, we must take a deep breath and begin to understand that the world might be careering headlong on a course which could lead to its own destruction. One thing which I have subsequently discovered which makes me feel easier is that it is possible for the world to continue to grow at that rate provided that it accepts that, instead of just using up resources, it might have to start reclaiming and recycling.

My hon. Friend mentioned aluminium. At the moment approximately 80 per cent. of the world's aluminium is produced from ore and 20 per cent. from reclaimed aluminium. Those percentages could quite easily be reversed. It requires a conscious decision on our part to stop consuming and to start reclaiming.

My hon. Friend, who is gaining a reputation for himself in this House, has hit on a most important subject. Reclamation and recycling sound trendy and unimportant. But if we are to continue to grow they will have to play an absolutely vital part in any Government's future planning.