Two-thirds 'support recycling tax incentives

Nearly two-thirds of people would be prepared to pay a tax on the non-recyclable rubbish they generated, a survey published today found.

Around 64% of those questioned said they would prefer a system where they paid less council tax but were charged directly for household rubbish, so that the more waste recycled the less they would pay. More than three-quarters also said they backed compulsory recycling, but opinion was divided on whether to fine those who refused to comply with such a system.

The findings came from face-to-face interviews conducted last month with 1,719 people in England, Scotland and Wales, commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Last month, Sir Michael Lyons, who is conducting an inquiry into the future of council tax, said he was considering an option of charging householders according to the amount of rubbish they produced.

Sir Michael's proposals would follow the model on continental Europe where homeowners pay based on the weight or number of bags of non-recycled waste.

In Germany households are charged 18p a kilo, while in Belgium they pay up to 70p for each sack of rubbish.

The proposals come as the LGA published a strategy to tackle waste, including plans to give local authorities the power to cut council tax and charge householders directly for waste management with reduced rates for throwing out less.

Figures from the association show that householders in England bin almost four tonnes of waste every second and are throwing out 3% more each year.

The cost to councils is more than £2.5bn a year, twice as much as a decade ago, and the figure is expected to increase by £564m this year and £314m the next.

The association has said that more than 40% of the waste disposed of by householders is packaging, much of it produced by supermarkets.

The shadow local government secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: "Changing the tax system so that it delivers better environmental outcomes has to be a good thing, but given the way this government has driven up council tax, people will be suspicious of any new tax-raising measures they propose.

"We would also need to be prepared to deal with those who will simply avoid paying a rubbish tax through illegal fly-tipping."

A spokeswoman for the charity Friends of the Earth said it backed the tax "as long as there are measures in place to make it easy for people to recycle and it's fair in terms of family size and incomes".

She said concerns about fly-tipping were likely to be unfounded, as similar schemes in other countries had been running successfully for many years without such problems.

Figures from the charity show that in some of these countries the amount of rubbish thrown out is now less than 150kg a person a year, compared to the current UK average of 400kg.

The target for local authorities set by the EU landfill directive is for recycling 33% of rubbish by 2015.

Last year, households in England recycled almost 23% of their rubbish, but this figure disguises big differences around the country. While those in the east recycled 29% of their waste, homes in the north east recycled just 16%.