Think tank calls for "pay-as-you-throw"
November 12, 2007
The New Local Government Network (NLGN), an independent think tank that seeks to transform public services, has issued a statement calling for alternatives to "pay-as-you-throw" waste charges, with the focus on incentives instead.
The NLGN said it welcomed news that the Government may be rethinking its plans for pay-as-you-throw charges for household refuse and urged it to keep open the option of rewarding a whole neighbourhood for waste minimisation as a smarter alternative.
The think tank argues that charging individuals for waste could prove excessively bureaucratic and not offer the necessary financial incentives to fundamentally change people’s recycling behaviour.
However, the NLGN says that the public does need "positive incentives to reduce the amount of waste they throw out and increase the amount they recycle".
The NLGN argued in a September 2007 pamphlet entitled How Can We Refuse? that, instead of individual charging, local communities should be rewarded financially for reducing the overall amount of waste they throw out.
Pamphlet author Anthony Brand advocated an approach where neighbourhoods that reduce their overall amount of waste could be given larger financial rewards, providing money to spend on, eg, new play areas, tree-planting, or additional police officers.
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