Pay-As-You-Throw Schemes Back On Agenda

Proposals allow council to fine residents who fail to recycle

Plans to allow councils to implement “pay as you throw” rubbish schemes to encourage recycling have been given the go-ahead, less than a week after the proposals were cancelled by the Government.

Changes to the draft Climate Change Bill, published this week, allow local authorities to pilot schemes where householders would be fined for not “starving their bins” and rewarded for throwing out less.

The scheme, proposed by former Environment Secretary David Miliband, was thought to be too politically damaging before the local elections and was axed. However, a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment announced that the proposals are now back on although primarily in pilot form.

The u-turn coincides with a report from the Public Accounts Committee, which accuses the Government of acting too slowly to reduce landfill waste and have led to claims by the opposition that Gordon Brown was “bottling it again”.

Conservative MP Eric Pickles told The Times On-line “The Labour Government has been caught red-handed reverting back to its old ways of burying bad news. Bin taxes will harm the local environment by leading to a surge in fly-tipping and toxic backyard burning, yet the Government is cynically trying to give this hated tax some political cover by hiding it in its Climate Change Bill.”

Hounslow Council has been asked to comment on the likelihood of such schemes being introduced in the boroughs and we are awaiting their response however, Ealing Council has confirmed that will not be taking part in the pilot scheme.

November 2, 2007