Green Light For Rubbish Charging Schemes

Councils in England have been given the go-ahead to introduce pilots schemes for 'pay-as-you-throw' rubbish taxes.

It is hoped that the scheme will encourage more recycling, although critics of the scheme have suggested that it could lead to an increase in fly-tipping and dumping.

Last week, it was reported that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had been set to announce that the scheme could go ahead. However, Downing Street is said to have intervened in the plans.

Britain is facing increasing pressure to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by 2013 or face the prospect of fines of up to £180 million per year from the European Commission.

The UK has to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going into landfill from the 18.1 million tonnes dumped in 2003/4 to 13.7 million tonnes in 2010, 9.2 million in 2013 and 6.3 million in 2020.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee has accused Defra of reacting too slowly to a 1999 European directive on waste, saying that it failed to take any effective action until 2003.

However, Defra said that "good progress" was being made in England on reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Eric Pickles, Shadow Local Government Secretary, accused the government of "burying bad news" by using the small print of an announcement on a Climate Change Bill to confirm that the plans were going ahead.

Mr Pickles said that the scheme would harm the local environment by leading to a surge in fly-tipping and backyard burning of waste. He said: "This isn't a green tax - but a green fig leaf to hike local taxes on top of council tax. No-one should believe a word that Gordon Brown says."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesperson, said: "We still have one of the worst recycling records in Europe and cannot go on filling holes in the ground with rubbish that can contaminate water tables and create high-powered greenhouse gases like methane.

"Anything which gives local councils more power to decide what is appropriate in their area makes sense, as far too many decisions are centralised in Whitehall. If councils want to experiment with a scheme that offers rebates to those who recycle more, the government should not stand in the way."

(KMcA)