RECYCLING FOR CASH...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 07:50AM 
So, who thinks that Conservative plans to pay people to recycle their household rubbish is a good idea?
"People will accumulate points for the household waste they recycle and be able to use the points to claim up to £130 a year in vouchers from major retailers like Marks & Spencer and Tesco. It is estimated that the financial incentives could help raise household recycling rates nationally by at least 30 per cent a year. A rise in recycling would in turn mean less rubbish simply being dumped in landfill sites. Councils are currently taxed by the Government for every tonne of waste they send to landfill."
I don't like this idea for three reasons.
1. I think that there is nothing wrong with properly managed landfill. It takes up a tiny percentage of our landmass and can be seen as the most efficient if done right.
2. It ignores the fact that the REASON Councils are taxed for every tonne of waste sent to landfill is because of the EU. Were we not in the EU we would not be taxed at all.
3. I don't like Nanny State interfering with the private citizen, be it through reward as in this case, or punishment in the Labour model.
Can I ask who reading this willingly recycles and feels that in doing so they are making a positive impact on the environment? When we read about how our recycled waste ends up in landfill in poorer nations it makes we wonder why we bother. Is it OK to pollute other nations but not our own?
Recycling uber alles 
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Reader Comments (8)
Landfill worked when the UK population was 40 million and the amount of refuse per household could easiliy fit into a small bin. Now there are 64 million and household waste has grown hugely. The problems with chemicals from landfill leaching into ground water (and thus our drinking water) have been considerable, never mind the sheer waste of resources involved in using a tin can or plastic water bottle once only.
But you are right about the EU. If we hadn't joined, we would probably still be throwing 100% of our waste into landfill, despite the increasing problems of pollution associated with it.
Peter: "Landfill worked when the UK population was 40 million and the amount of refuse per household could easiliy fit into a small bin."
Assertion. Please backup with some facts. Why does landfill work for 40million but not for 80million?
Why can't the British use the refuse to reclaim land from the Sea? Build dykes and backfill with processed refuse.
Peter: "never mind the sheer waste of resources involved in using a tin can or plastic water bottle once only."
In my youth, we would take the pop bottles back to the shop for a 1/2 penny refund. Don't see why we couldn't do something similar with the aim of phasing out plastic bottles.
Sounds like a recipe for a whole new army of bureaucrats to me.
Something I thought the Conservative leadership wanted to cut down on..
I do agree that waste has to be better managed though.
As you say Peter, we produce far more rubbish with far more dangerous chemicals used in packaging and products.
Gender bending chemicals are already a serious problem.
We don't have to be in the EU to tackle the problem though, now do we?
(Please someone, let us out!!)
Perhaps this how the human species will finally bow out..
Trading insults and vitriol from the top of waste mountains.
"Ahoy over there! Yes, you with the fishbones in your hair and plastic bag t-shirt!.
You bloody UKIPPER you!"
Danny Boy: "We don't have to be in the EU to tackle the problem though, now do we?"
No, but there is no dire situation that the European Union cannot make worse. Landfill if properly managed can actually produce hydrocarbons as the waste decomposes. over a couple of square miles this can be harnessed and burned to generate electrical energy or warm homes nearby - cost, nearly nothing - other than that associated with setting up the capture and burning of the waste gas to generate electricity or heat.
Once the biodegradable material has decomposed we might even revisit the sites and mine the iron steel and other metals buried there.
Net or nearly net energy positive.
Contrast that with the situation mandated by the European Union where landfill ( the cheapest option ) is prohibited and we must either burn the stuff in expensively built industrial scale incinerators or ship it to China for them to dump in landfill. Many of the incinerators are fueled by gas or oil and the whole process is energy negative.
I know which I prefer and I know which I think is most 'ecologically' sound.
APL,
I'm all for practical green solutions.
Wind turbines
Wave power etc.,
Anything that can lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.
But I think we will have to have new nuclear power stations to provide the bulk of our energy requirements.
It makes me laugh when our politicians get so smug and virtuous about how we are reducing our carbon footprint.
Of course we are. We don't make anything much any more, and we export our toxic waste abroad for them to deal with..
What an example we're setting..!
Well, I used to deliberately not recycle, just to silently flip a finger at the over-zealous environmentalists really, until I finally admitted to myself that I was just being stupid. These days, I make use of the different coloured bins and boxes, and when I remember, I bring a reusable carrier bag to do the shopping.
How much of an effect it has, I have no idea, but I really hate the way our roadsides are becoming increasingly strewn with plastic debris tangled up in the trees and bushes. It spoils the look of our country and I'd rather not unwittingly contribute to it. I've found that it's possible to just quietly recycle what you can, without having to go all pseudo-religious about it.
That's an intelligent approach, Tom
We have the plastic bag problem here too, and it's not pretty. The bag stuck in the tree is bad enough, but the thousand flimsy bags that find their way to block a drain or into the mouth of a fish or fowl or seal to choke it are a much larger problem
I'm an exceptionally diligent recycler and don't need any laws to make me participate. It astonishes me that anyone would not want to participate when it is so ridiculously easy to do so in many places.
I reject any attempts to frame this or most environmental issues as a left or right thing.
Y'know - there are privately owned recycling places around who will pay you CASH for your recyclables. Why not just allow that rather than make it a government deal?
People make a living collecting recyclables. One guy from the old neighborhood used to spot stuff thrown away on the side of the road all the time. Once, he got almost a thousand dollars from one pile of stuff. He had to get his son to help him haul it to the recycle place - but then he went and got a new roof on his front porch with the money. This guy had a full time job, but would just do this for extra cash. We got into it a little bit, too. It was some extra work, but I'm telling you that guy made some decent money doing that.
Too bad that it always has to be government run for you guys.