Households should be paid for recycling in a bid to boost the UK's recycling rates, say the Conservatives
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
One can but wonder as to whether the leading members of the Tory Party are reading the Green (Living) Review for I have been saying this, in the pages of this journal as well as in meetings with other members of the press, as well as politicians, local and central, that is to say that we need to give people incentives to recycle.
In a speech to the Green Alliance, an environmental lobby group, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said Government's use of fines and taxation was "old fashioned" and "heavy handed" and one can but applaud the Shadow Chancellor for his insight. Maybe the Tories too are soon capable of inventing the wheel or such.
He pointed to the example of America, where households in hundreds of cities are paid up to $50 a month by local authorities as an incentive to recycle.
The payments, which vary according to the amount of recycling, are funded by the amount the authorities save in landfill taxes as less waste is being sent to landfill.
"In some communities, it has increased the amount of household waste being recycled by more than 200%," Mr Osborne said.
"And there is an important equity dimension too. While the poorest households were previously the least likely to recycle, as soon as they start receiving a financial incentive for recycling, they typically become amongst the most likely households to recycle.
"I want to see this innovative approach rolled out across the UK."
Not only are the households paid but anyone can bring recyclables to the recycling centers, whether privately operated or run by the municipalities, and turn those finds, whether soda or beer cans, bottles, glass jars, etc., into cash.
It would be good if Mr. Osborne would be so good as to study the schemes properly in the USA, all of them. All of them seem to make great sense and it would make a change if in this country we could actually implement something similar – and there are other countries too those examples we could look at – rather than being given, each and every time when one suggest such approaches to the current government that, while such things may well work in other countries, they could never work in Britain; because Britain is different, they then add.
We must get away from a “cannot do” attitude simply because such schemes have not been invented and thought of in this country to a “can do” approach and look at implementing all good schemes here in the UK, and the sooner the better.
In the USA, in fact, many of the poorest households, and also the homeless families, actually make a living – yes, a living – from collecting recyclables from trash bins in parks and other places. And while the USA pays people to recycle the current UK government of so-called Labor (the real Labour men like Hardie, Salter and Brockway would turn in their graves) rather uses the clunking fist approach of treats, fines and such like, rather than giving people any sort of financial incentives to recycle. In addition to that they have forced most local authorities to go from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collection, which has led to a large increase in fly tipping.
He said the party is working with the Local Government Association, the Mayor of London and Tory local authorities such as those in Windsor and Maidenhead to develop plans for how the scheme will work in the UK.
Reacting to the speech, which covered a number of environmental topics, Stephen Hale, director of Green Alliance, said: "There is much to do to flesh this out in order to develop an approach that delivers.
"But it was heartening to hear his commitment to more work in many areas, so that a Conservative government would be ready, as Osborne put it, to 'drive forward the environmental agenda from day one.'"
Sure, Mr. Hale, there is probably lots to flesh out in what Mr. Osborne has said but let's not knock it and start the “cannot do” approach, yet again. We can do, like other countries can do and we should and indeed must do. It can be done for other countries, and in that kind of recycling it would appear that America is the leader, show that it can be done.
For years I have been advocating the “reverse vending machines” that are in operation in many US towns and cities for aluminium cans and also, so I understand for bottles, but no one seems to be listening in this country for no one, as yet, has even suggested this.
Even here in Mr. Osborne's suggestion it is again an government led and controlled approach, so it would seem, rather than having something that is much more at the bottom and may be even via more private enterprises, as many of those schemes are indeed in the USA.
Last month, Defra launched an informal consultation on household waste incentive schemes.
The Chartered Institution for Waste Management has consistently called for pilot schemes to be used to test the effectiveness of financial incentives.
CEO Steve Lee said: "The possible use of incentive charges has caused great debate and media interest over several years, but until these schemes are piloted we are only guessing how effective, how costly and how practicable they will be."
All those consultations are often, I would suggest, not necessary at all and are but a waste of money. Money for the boys, obviously, and Quangos want paying. What is needed are not more studies and consultations, like the ones from which the government recently seems to have had the results back, where it was discovered, at great costs, I should think, that canals and inland waterways can be used to carry freight (our ancestors in the 17th century already knew that; they built the canals after all) and that one can burn (waste) wood. The latter was a fact well known, so I understand, to early man, probably even the Neanderthals. Why it was not known, it would appear, to those people in government beats me.
What do we need “pilot schemes” for? If this thing works – and it does – in other countries then all we have to do is to learn from them and copy their approach and make it fit the UK. There does not have to be much doctoring on the system. I have seen some of the systems of “reverse vending”, for instance, in operation some years back and they are simple and they work.
On the other hand, what is wrong with simply bringing back a “deposit” scheme for bottles and extending this to drinks cans, glass jars and such. If not operated by shops then all that is needed are local “recycling centers”. Not rocket science, it it.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Tories call for payments to recyclers rather than fines for people who don't
