The ESA comments came following a new nationwide survey carried out by MORI on behalf of the Environmental Services Training & Education Trust (ESTET). The poll said that 63% of householders feel that they are not very well informed or not informed at all about waste issues, and a third of people think they are paying over 5 times as much money as they actually are for their waste disposal.
Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the ESA, ESTET's parent organisation, said: “It is time we looked seriously at the way people pay for waste in the UK. It cannot be right that most people think they are paying more than double what they actually are and that more than a quarter think they are paying more than 500% what they actually are for the local authority service they most value while at the same time the UK is lagging behind the rest of Europe in important environmental investment.”
Of the representative 2,000 people surveyed in the poll, 61% said that waste was the most important local council service of all – more than schools (42%), road maintenance (28%) and services for the disabled (18%).
Misinformed
Aside from a third of people who stated that they did not know, a similar proportion thought that they pay 5 or more per week for waste disposal with around a quarter of householders saying they think they pay between 2 and 4.99 each week. The actual figure is much closer to 1.
Commenting on the survey's findings, Mr Hazell said: “It’s crystal clear from the MORI poll that people want more information from councils on the costs for waste management. Clearly separating waste charges on council tax bills would be a useful first step in increasing this transparency.”
Householders this morning proved how misinformed they are when responding to a television news story about recycling this morning. One householder told BBC Breakfast: “The other day I had a terse letter complaining that my recycling cans and bottles had not been thoroughly washed. How much energy is involved in the hot water/soap and cleaning them out – surely in the year 2002 this is not necessary?”
Another said: “I used to recycle everything until I realised my efforts were lining the pockets of privately-owned recycling companies.”
The survey comes on the back of comments made at the weekend by the Government's key advisor on the environment, Jonathon Porritt, who said that the Government wasn't doing enough about waste.
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