Beckett rules out variable charging on household waste

While in 2005/06 funds will be available for piloting of reward schemes for recycling, the secretary of state said: “It is not the government's intention to give local authority the power to charge for removal of residual waste at the present time.”

Responding to a question from London Waste Action's Simon Read at a meeting in Parliament today, Mrs Beckett said: “I am sure you are aware this is a matter of considerable controversy.” Mrs Beckett stressed that there was a lack of joined up thinking in local government on this topic.

In her speech she also confirmed that the government was confident that recycling and composting targets for 2003/04 would be met (see letsrecycle.com story).

She said: “Figures will be published by the OPDM and this all confirms my belief that the 2005 target which I have always believed to have been challenging is within reach. It would be wrong top be complacent and we continue to look at novel ways to deal with waste.”

Retailers
In her speech Mrs Beckett commented on a wide range of topics and several times referred to the importance of retailers being involved with recycling.

She highlighted the importance of retailers working with local authorities and pointed to specific initiatives getting underway this year. These will include financial incentives and discounts. And, she referred to a study of household actions, which revealed that taking materials to a recycling bank was high up on the level of environmentally linked actions that individuals could perform.

WRAP
Mrs Beckett also referred to the work of WRAP and she said that initial research following the television advertising campaign by WRAP was positive.

It is understood that after five weeks WRAP found awareness of recycling had increased by a few percentage points and the organisation is expecting this figure to increase following considerable post-Christmas and New Year television adverts promoting recycling. These adverts are expected to also include composting soon, whereas to date they have focussed on materials such as metal cans.