Recycling 'incentives' on the way

Sometimes the knowledge that you're helping to preserve valuable resources and do your bit to save the planet just isn't enough, is it? Let's face it: what would make recycling really rewarding is if you were handed a crisp £50 note as soon as you'd shuffled your way down to the bottle bank.

There are similar 'reward' schemes afoot in Europe - in which households are either given cash or fined, dependent on the level of their recycling - and they've caught the eye of Environment Minister Joan Ruddock. The nickname for this approach, soon to be making its way to five test areas in the UK? 'Pay As You Throw.' You see what they did there?

Should the scheme alter people's litter-based habits, it couldn't come soon enough: the Local Government Association has labelled Britain the 'dustbin of Europe'. Apparently this sceptic isle likes nothing more than piling up the landfills - a good degree more than most of our Continental neighbours.

Ruddock outlined her ideas:

"Charges and rebates of around £50 are enough to change behaviour and deliver real benefits for waste reduction. The shape of any pilot scheme will be for local authorities to determine. They know what is most likely to work for them in their own local circumstances."

Guess we'll have to see if that old bugbear 'logistics' has anything to say on the matter ...

Written by C J Davies on 19 Jun 2008 10:43 PM. Permalink