Rare news item: A House of Commons committee has said something eminently sensible The committee was looking at plans to introduce fortnightly rubbish collections everywhere, as well as to penalise people who produce rubbish and to reward recycling.
The Committee came out against these ideas as likely to encourage fly-tipping, increase the rat population, potentially spread diseases and so on.
The Department for the Environment said it was “disappointed that, on financial incentives, the committee has not recognised the need to try out new and innovative ways of encouraging sustainable waste behaviour”.
The solutions to the problem of waste that the Department of the Environment were favouring seem pretty poor. Above all, they impact on the consuming household rather than on the producer or distributor. For instance, triple-wrapped foods produce mountains of plastic wrapping that have to be dealt with. It’s not like we have a choice about accepting the packaging when we buy things.
The DOE’s solutions come down to cutting landfill by slowing down the collection of trash and charging people, if they can’t dispose of their trash themselves by composting or taking it to the recycling centre. Continue reading
