Tuesday, 9 January 2007

UK - Europe's Dustbin?


The Local Government Association wants the government to give councils the power to charge people depending on how much household waste they produce. The UK dumps a staggering 27m tons of household waste into landfill each year. That is 7m tons more than the next EU state italy. In comparrison, Germany with a 25% larger population only sends 10m tons of waste to landfill or rubbish tips each year.
The LGA, which represents 400 councils in England and Wales want to see manufacturers of single-use items such as nappies and batteries contribute to the cost of dealing with their disposal.
The LGA's environment board chairman, Councillor Paul Bettison, said: "For decades people have been used to being able to throw their rubbish away without worrying about the consequences. Those days are now over. Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than any other country on the continent. It is time manufacturers were made to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products. It is totally unacceptable that the council tax-payer is picking up the bill for business."
The LGA wants to cut the council tax bills of those households which produce less household waste.

Q. With land fill space predicted to run out in 2016, should the manufacturers of products that produce high volumes of household waste be forced to share the costs of disposal?
To see the results:

1 comment:

St Crispin said...

Since the whole thing is a zero sum game, the money involved remains the same, but in the case of making insustry pat we must add another layer of government (a department to take "green taxes" off industry.
So, either all council tax payers take the hit (possibly unfair on people without children in the case of nappies) or the manufacturer gets taxed (extra department / staff to do this) He increases the cost of nappies (or whatever) and the consumer (also a council tax payer) gets hit for even more? And everyone pays for the extra tax department / staff.