In this case localism is perhaps as much a victim in this case as the ‘pay as you throw’ (PAYT) scheme originally proposed by Labour. If we are to really change the way that we deal with our waste, we need to reduce, reuse and recycle. PAYT gave local authorities the option of linking part of council tax to the amount of waste produced. Those who produced large amounts would have been charged more, but those who reduced their total waste, either through recycling or through consuming less, would have been rewarded. Now this tool is no longer available.
The irony of the Conservatives’ favoured scheme is that householders are rewarded for recycling more, which perversely can come from consuming more. When rewards are based on the weight of your recycling, then why not buy the biggest and heaviest weekend paper you can find? And then use your rewards to buy more stuff that you can recycle to get more rewards?
Incentives have a place to play in changing behaviour, that much is clear. But rewarding good behaviour by encouraging consumption will not help us reduce and reuse, only recycle. Waste policy has just taken one step forward and two steps back.
Sorry but ‘pay as you throw’ was a really terrible policy and we are well rid of it. You are not taking into account the unintended consequences. People would load their rubbish in their neighbours’ bins. The incidence of fly tipping would go up. It would have discriminated against large families. I am not convinced by your idea that people would spend more to consume more to recycle more to get more incentive payments. Why on earth would someone going to spend £x extra to get, say, £x/4 back in incentive payments? People aren’t stupid.
“It would have discriminated against large families”.
Ah, the usual cry of ‘discrimination’. It would discriminate against large families in the same way that supermarkets do, by charging more if you buy more things, and airlines, when you book more seats, and estate agents, when you try to buy a house with more bedrooms. Diddums.
Pickles shows this Government is not localist. It goes along with their curbing the discretion of local authorities to do what their voters want: eg determining opening hours of pubs; surveillance of streets; issuing of council newsletters; and even deciding on their level of council tax. There is no power to the people here: only ‘do as Whitehall tells you’.