By Natasha Lomas, 31 October 2007 14:19
NEWS
Chips in wheelie bins could be used to help the UK meet targets to reduce its CO2 emissions.
The so called 'chip and bin' scheme could see chips put in bins to collect data on the weight of household rubbish in order to encourage people to recycle more and throw away less.
Changes to the draft Climate Change Bill published this week reveal the government is keen to promote incentives for waste minimisation as part of its greater commitment to reducing greenhouse gases - in order to meet its target of reducing the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050.
The Taking Forward the UK Climate Change Bill: The Government Response to Pre-Legislative Scrutiny and Public Consultation report states: "The government plans to tackle further the issue of landfilling waste by providing power to pilot local authority incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling. We will announce proposals in due course. These plans are being taken forward through the Climate Change Bill and, if replicated more widely, could save up to two [million] to six million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020."
According to government figures, landfill is responsible for three per cent of the UK's total CO2 emissions.
The idea of charging households on the amount of rubbish they generate is controversial and has evoked fierce opposition among silicon.com readers. But the plan does not appear to be on the scrap heap just yet.
Last week, there was speculation the government was backing away from a 'pay as you throw' scheme, with media reports that an announcement about a 'bin tax' had been blocked. But a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told silicon.com there had been no plan for an announcement at that time.
She said: "We never had a date. We still haven't got a date for when we're going to be publishing the way forward because we're still developing the policy."
Schemes to reduce household rubbish could include chip and bin - where rubbish is assessed on weight - or other methods that, for instance, measure the size of containers used or require households to buy particular bags. The specifics of waste minimisation schemes would be up to local authorities, said the Defra spokeswoman.
At present, local authorities are banned from doing any charging on waste, she said - so the aim of the bill is to give councils in England the power to pilot schemes if they want to. Councils would have to meet certain criteria before being able to establish a waste charging scheme, she said.
The legislation will spell out what a local authority has to do before they could implement any waste charging scheme - for instance they would have to have a very good curb-side collection that allows people to recycle as much as they can. And they would have to have a fly tipping prevention strategy in place before they would be allowed to do any of this.
Defra said it's still very much up to local authorities as to whether they want to do it - in communication with their constituents.
Rubbish charging schemes are more likely to happen in rural places than urban locations, according to the spokeswoman, as recycling is easier where people have more room to do it.
She added: "It definitely won't be a tax... It is more an incentive to encourage people to recycle so it would be cost neutral in that the people who refuse to do any recycling would be paying for the people who do lots."
The full government report on the draft Climate Change Bill can be found here.
Comments
There are 15 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
I assume these bins will be capable of being padlocked then, to prevent other people putting extra rubbish in my bin
and that the bin men will come within 30 minutes of a prearranged pick up time so I can stand outside with the bin and unlock it for them, re locking it once they have gone, and further that this pick up time will fit in with my working day so I don't have to take time off work to get my bin emptied
this will of course also apply to the paper only and green waste bins I have been provided with, so all three pick ups should happen within a few minutes of each other
there should also be a system of remuneration for late or missed pick ups, after all I'm being charged for how much rubbish I generate so I will require a refund if the service is not satisfactory
I could go on all day in much the same vein and I guarantee that I will should my bins ever be threatened with becoming part of such a scheme
2. anonymous
most of the waste which ends up in our household bin is not generated by my family but by Tesco, Waitrose et al. Why should have to pay for their excess packaging. Will retailers be obliged to have larcg bins at their checkouts so taht we can dispose of this waste at source and let them be charged?
3. anonymous
This is nothing to do with carbon emissions. It's a panic move to avoid punitive landfill penalties that we become liable for in 2010 for failing to meet the 1999 EU landfill directive.
4. Nick Borek
What is this odsession with the weight of waste all about? One of the biggest problems is plastic waste, mostly excessive packaging. It is light but high volume. Despite plastics being labelled with recycling codes for years now, there are very limited facilities for recycling. There is no incentive for local authorities to address this as their performance is measured on the weight not volume of waste going to landfill.
5. Graham Coles
And they say the education system hasn't been dumbed down. If the current crop of useless governmental policy makers are anything to go by, I think the case is proven.
First they pretend that alternate bin collections are supposed to promote recycling, but even though people saw through it, they still insist it's not just a cost cutting exercise.
Now they are using this years silly soundbite for all crap policies to claim that chipping bins will 'reduce the carbon footprint' and 'combat climate change'. (Will it add synergy to the refuse collection process as well?)
No, it will just waste money by putting a worthless chip into a bin so they can charge people more for rubbish they haven't put it the bin.
Until these brainless muppets answer the question 'why should we be charged for disposing of other peoples rubbish' (which I notice has been asked many times without an answer) this scheme is going nowhere.
Or at least it shouldn't. More likely it will just add itself to the ever growing list of moronically dumb ideas that government generates, gets a hail of criticism for, answers none of the questions and keeps progressing to completion regardless.
I think I've got the concept of open government now. It's where they openly mislead people about their policies and never listen to what's being said.
6. Ian Sargent
Can the chips be recycled though?
7. Roger Huffadine
Hey Karen - one of my underused skills is Locksmith - I be I can get in your bin even if you lock it :)
Better still I have located the chip area on my bin and I'm fairly sure I can swap the chip with someone else's bin - but to avoid being tracked down I would need to swap about 5 chips around all in the same collection area - the trouble is I would need to ensure that my chip ends up in a bin belonging to a fanatical green who never has much in the bins.
8. Guy Reynolds
In addition to the issues of bin looking to prevent other putinf their waste in your bin and fly tipping, this is a tax on individuals who wnat to recycle, but are prevented frrom doing so due to the in competance of the state.
My local authority has both doorstep recycling collections and local recycling points, however due to the caveats they place on what can be accepted for recycling, at he end of each fortnight, nearly 50% of the waste in my non-recyclables waste bin is recyclable, there is just nowhere locally to recycle it.
Rather than passing legislation to penalise the individual, and passing the buck onto local authorities, this government, so keen on micromanaging every other aspect of our lives, should pass enforceable legislation that ensures that manufacturers, importers and retailer use the minimum appropriate packaging, and that this packaging is either compostable or recyclable. Biodegradable packaging is misllading hype; though it is bio-degradeable its not necessarily compostable, it is also non-recyclable and disruptes the recycling chanin because it is ofton indistigushable from similar recyclable material resulting in the biodegradable and reyclable material having to go to landfill.
The legislation should also force all local authories to have schemes that can recycle all recyclable materials rather than the postcode lottery that we have now. Then and only then should they even consider 'Pay for what you through' legislation.
9. Adrian Carey
And there won't be an increase in fly-tipping of course!!!
It's another tax on the law abiding general public.
But then recent governments seem to have lost all their carrotts. They like their sticks - a product of their education perhaps?
10. anonymous
Karen, you are wrong...
... You won't need to padlock your bins. You'll just join the queue at a nearby layby after dark - like the rest of us - to empty your rubbish into the bushes...
Although I expect local councils will employ guards to patrol such places to prevent fly-tipping. They can also perform the dual function of preventing consenting adults from doing what they want to, in their own cars, with whoever they want...
Our local council has already put huge gates up to keep cars out after 5pm...
11. Simon
Has anyone worked out the true cost of recyling ? All those vehicle miles, energy costs for the recycling plants etc.
What about pyrolytic disposal, no not incineration, but decomposition of the materials by pyrolysis into some rather useful products :
Combustable gas
Metals
Carbon dust
There have been demonstration plants for this for many years, but those have never had any (meaningful) support from government despite their advantages.
You can feed in almost anything. You get out useful materials. They have a net positive energy output.
They just LOVE high energy stuff like plastic - it decomposes into hydrocarbon gasses and carbon with little else. The carbon can be made into little bricks for your fire, or be buried for carbon sequestration. The gasses fuel the pyrolysis process with plenty left over to generate electricity (or whatever).
Feed in old tyres (yes, you can shove them in whole, or at least in large chunks), and you get a lot of carbon, plus a fair amount of zinc and steel.
Oh yes, and properly run, the emissions are such that they don't even register on the detectors we use today. These aren't the low tech incinerators that spew out all sorts of nasty chemicals.
12. Richard
How sad: Yet another poor use of technology:
Technology could help improve services, reduce taxation - and improve our lives: Instead, government uses it to exercise yet more control over our lives.
Even according to government & EU figures, domestic refuse is only a small proportion of Britain's landfill; in turn, landfill has only a small effect on "global warming."
At worst, this refuse scheme could increase the spread of disease and also fuel local tensions; Even at best, it could make only a small reduction to a small factor of a small effect.
13. Ian
Carbon footprint? Is that another name for "EU Landfill Fines" of £180M?
The UK exported over 700,000 tons of plastic and paper/card waste to China so far this year. Chinese companies are touting round UK companies to buy their waste due to material shortages in China. Often regardless of the fact some of it cannot be recycled. Up to £120 a ton or £500 per shipping container is the going rate. That is very nearly cheaper than landfill or commercial recycling collection!
Call me very cycnical, but local authorities will be awash with materials that they can get at least £120 a ton for by exporting. The minimal amount offered as rebate for recycled vs. waste will leave councils with a very tidy profit from what we are sorting and packing for them to ship to China!
To combat this, I would like to see private owned recycling centes where you can earn a few quid for your materials that make their cash exporting. Let's see how quickly the councils respond and how much they are really making from recycled materials!
14. John Hanton
At our local tip I spotted a hardwood chair right on top of the wood skip. I asked the recycling official on site if I could take it for recycling and his answer was "Sorry... you can't do that".
They tell you to recycle and when you offer to do it they say "Sorry... you can't do that?" Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Recycling for councils mean that everyone at the local tip throw everything in the skips and for god's sake don't let anyone steal the valuable waste... the fact that the chair had only a few scratches and could have been restored didn't matter... into the wood pulper it went...
15. Radical Meldrew
This is nothing to do with environmental issues at all. As far as I see it, the chips are down and we bin conned!