The policy announcement came at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth today, as part of a packaging of measures to financially reward environmentally-friendly behaviour.
The Party said the current 1.6 billion spent managing the municipal waste stream was set to increase to 3.2 billion by 2020 without a change of policy. In all waste streams – including commercial and industrial – the Party said a 700 million increase in waste management costs is expected by 2010.
Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor Vincent Cable said the government's “heavy handed” use of environmental taxes to raise revenue for the Treasury had “undermined public trust”. Instead, he said environmental taxes should be “fed back into lower taxes elsewhere”.
“We are not proposing higher taxes but using existing taxes to reward environmental friendly behaviour,” Mr Cable explained.
Variable charging systems would see local authorities charging householders for the amount of non-recyclable waste they produce. Systems could see householders charged for the number of black bags they put out each week or the weight of non-recyclable waste they produce, measured by on-board weighing systems on refuse collection vehicles.
The Liberal Democrats said economic incentives for consumers would be “offset by plans to ensure polluters pay for the environmental costs of their activities”. The Party also said it plans to graduate tax on cars on the basis of the amount of emissions they produce and change the system of airport taxes.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary, said: “Doing nothing is not the cheap option. The simple message is that polluters must pay. But that doesn't mean more tax for everyone, it means a fairer tax system that will financially reward those who use environmental factors in their decision-making.”
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