" The proposed blanket introduction of waste charging is unhelpful and unnecessary. Councils, not central government, should have ’save-as-you-throw’ powers, but it is vital that any authority thinking of introducing save-as-you-throw should first make sure there’ll be no overall increase in council tax, it has public support and measures are in place to prevent flytipping"
Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Chairman of the Local Government Association
Council leaders have spoken out against proposals outlined in the leaked Number 10 dossier for the introduction of a blanket ‘pay-as-you-throw’ system for charging for the disposal of household waste.
The leak dossier was reported in an earlier MoreThanWaste article.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, is opposed to the government imposing any universal system for charging householders for disposing of their waste.
In particular the LGA consider that a scheme should not be a device to increase the net tax burden. Households that recycle should pay less, those that don’t may pay more but overall there will be no increase in council tax.
The LGA proposes that instead, individual councils should be able to choose whether they adopt their own ‘save-as-you-throw’ scheme as long as there is:
- No overall increase in council tax
- Public support for the scheme
- The adoption of tough measures to tackle any increase in flytipping
It has been reported that a leaked report by the No. 10 Strategy Unit was circulated to members of the Commons liaison committee. The document apparently argued that ‘economic incentives’ are being used in other countries to persuade people to recycle more of their household rubbish.
Reports indicate that the document said, 'Variable charging typically cuts waste volume by 10 per cent and increases recycling.'
LGA’s War on Waste
The LGA’s War on Waste campaign, launched in January, is designed to end Britain's reign as the dustbin of Europe.
Householders throw away 27 million tonnes of rubbish into landfill every year. This is seven tonnes more than any other country in Europe.
Residents are paying around £125 per household for councils to collect and dispose of waste and in 6 years time this figure is set to almost double.
The amount of waste generated is increasing year on year, and the cost of disposing of it in landfill sites is rising by around 15% a year.
The LGA says that the collection and disposal of refuse is one of the key financial pressures facing local councils in the coming years and local authorities are increasingly using innovative approaches to reduce the amount of rubbish and promote recycling.
Businesses, central government, councils and local people all have a vital role to play to protection of the environment, to stop climate change and cut the amount of household waste that is produced and thrown away.
Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Chairman of the Local Government Association, said:
“The proposed blanket introduction of waste charging is unhelpful and unnecessary. Councils, not central government, should have ’save-as-you-throw’ powers, but it is vital that any authority thinking of introducing save-as-you-throw should first make sure there’ll be no overall increase in council tax, it has public support and measures are in place to prevent flytipping”.
He continued, “Councils are on the frontline in the fight against climate change. Only councils, working on the ground with local people, have the knowledge and expertise to decide how best to encourage residents to understand the consequence of us throwing away more each year and to take more responsibility for their rubbish. The one size fits all approach put forward by Number10 flies in the face of devolution and giving local people the chance to have their say on the issues that will affect them”.
“Even though two out of three people polled in a survey by the LGA said that they would back a save as you throw scheme, the association favours such initiatives only when a council has checked whether its own residents are happy with such a move.
He concluded, “Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than any other country on the continent. For decades people have been used to being able to throw their rubbish away without worrying about the consequences. Those days are now over.”
A brief biography of Lord Bruce-Lockhart can be found on the Wikipedia website.
Face to face opinion poll
A face to face opinion poll undertaken by TNS was carried out with 1,719 respondents between the 21st and 25th June 2006. The overall responses were as follows, says the LGA:
I am now going to ask you some questions about recycling household rubbish, e.g. bottles, cans, newspapers, etc.
Do you currently recycle any household rubbish?
%
Yes 87
No 13
Would you prefer a system whereby you pay less income tax or council tax and instead get charged directly for household rubbish removal, so that the more you recycle the less you would pay?
%
Yes 64
No 28
Don’t Know 8
Do you think recycling should be made compulsory?
%
Yes 77
No 19
Don’t Know 4
Do you think people should be fined if they refuse to recycle?
%
Yes 47
No 46
Don’t Know 7