LGA talk about Rubbish!
Today's proposal from the local Government for extra charges for residents who generate more waste and Council Tax reductions for those who don't generate as much, has a number fo flaws:
1. It is hard to enforce. More people will not take rubbish home and leave it on buses in shopping areas, parks etc. We will see an increase in flytipping.
2. It will be an addtional cause of neighbour disputes as residents claim their neighbours are putting rubbish in their bins. Council's will have to install locks on bins.
3. How will it work in faltted areas with communcal bin systems?
4. It will not onely be seen as a stealth tax, but will actually transfer wealth from poorer low recycling areas to wealthier high recycling areas. Look at the stats in Sutton if you want evidence.
Incentives would be a good alternative but are likely to be too small to be effective. A much simpler alternative is as follows:
1. Council's use their existing powers to target those who do not adhere to existing waste management. This will cost money, but only aftet this has been done can anything else be done.
2. Targetted recycling campaigning by Council's in poorer areas. Interestingly I am currently doing some work in this field and will report on later on how this works. Agian this will cost money, but will prove more publicly acceptable.
3. Work with schools to promote recycling by parents. This is another area I am currently working on. If you look at the stats, low recycling correlates to areas with high numbers of children, but children are the most committed to recycling. Surely we can use to schools to tackle this issue. Again it require extra effort.
None of the alternative I set out requires legislation. However it does require political will. So far Sutton has not gone down the LGA road and had focussed on the volutary approach. I hope it stays that way.
1. It is hard to enforce. More people will not take rubbish home and leave it on buses in shopping areas, parks etc. We will see an increase in flytipping.
2. It will be an addtional cause of neighbour disputes as residents claim their neighbours are putting rubbish in their bins. Council's will have to install locks on bins.
3. How will it work in faltted areas with communcal bin systems?
4. It will not onely be seen as a stealth tax, but will actually transfer wealth from poorer low recycling areas to wealthier high recycling areas. Look at the stats in Sutton if you want evidence.
Incentives would be a good alternative but are likely to be too small to be effective. A much simpler alternative is as follows:
1. Council's use their existing powers to target those who do not adhere to existing waste management. This will cost money, but only aftet this has been done can anything else be done.
2. Targetted recycling campaigning by Council's in poorer areas. Interestingly I am currently doing some work in this field and will report on later on how this works. Agian this will cost money, but will prove more publicly acceptable.
3. Work with schools to promote recycling by parents. This is another area I am currently working on. If you look at the stats, low recycling correlates to areas with high numbers of children, but children are the most committed to recycling. Surely we can use to schools to tackle this issue. Again it require extra effort.
None of the alternative I set out requires legislation. However it does require political will. So far Sutton has not gone down the LGA road and had focussed on the volutary approach. I hope it stays that way.
posted by Charlie Mansell at 9:52 pm
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