Think tank calls for 'pay as you throw' rubbish scheme (Filed: 27/08/2006)
Councils should be able to charge households extra to get rid of their non-recyclable rubbish, a leading think-tank has said today. The IPPR said that a "pay as you throw" system was the only way of improving Britain's poor record of waste recycling. According to statistics published by IPPR today, Britain has the third worst recycling rates in the European Union after Greece and Portugal. advertisement In 2003-04, Britain recycled or composted just 18 per cent of its municipal waste, significantly short of the next worst nation, France (28 per cent). The Netherlands achieved the best results with 65 per cent. Nick Pearce, director of the IPPR, said: "Our European neighbours have shown that where charges are commonplace, recycling rates will rise." The Local Government Association (LGA) backed the call, warning that council tax bills will have to rise to pay hefty EU fines if there was no improvement in recycling rates. Councils face fines of up to £150 per tonne of rubbish if they fail to meet recycling targets under the EU landfill directive, with the total bill running to up to £230 million, the LGA said. Sandy Bruce Lockhart, chairman of the LGA, said: "For decades people have been used to being able to throw their rubbish away without worrying about the consequences. Those days are now over. "There needs to be a radical overhaul of the way in which rubbish is thrown away otherwise there is a real danger that council tax bills will have to rise and the environment will continue to suffer." Today The Mail on Sunday reported that up to 500,000 bins in council districts across England have already been fitted with electronic chips which could be used to bill individual homes for the amount of rubbish they produce. The tiny devices identify each bin so that records can be kept on the waste disposal habits of its owners. The devices carry a unique serial number which can be scanned when the bin is tipped into a refuse lorry. The newspaper said the devices were already in use in parts of Crewe, Nantwich, Peterborough, South Norfolk, Woking and Devizes, in Wiltshire.
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