Funding to incentivise recycling in the UK

United Kingdom – Extra funding worth £5 million (US$ 8.2 million) is being made available to help UK councils to increase their recycling rates, the country’s secretary of state for communities and local government Eric Pickles has announced. Households will be encouraged to recycle by means of shopping vouchers and loyalty rewards – without the threat of ‘unfair’ bin fines or service cuts for breaching ‘complex and arbitrary’ waste rules.

Crucially, the new funding will be open just to those councils offering weekly collections. In this way, ministers hope to send ′a clear signal′ that councils offering only fortnightly collections will lose out on government funding.

The scheme is intended to build on the success of around 40 government-funded pilot reward programmes – a notable example of which is the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead′s scheme which has boosted recycling by 35%, with residents earning recycling points that can be spent at shops in the district.

′It is a myth that fortnightly bin collections or unfair bin fines are needed to increase recycling,′ Pickles has commented. Rewards for recycling show how working with families can deliver environmental benefits without the ′draconian approach′ of punishing people and leaving out smelly rubbish, he insists.

Pickles adds: ′This government is protecting the local environment by supporting recycling, as well as championing weekly collections which protect local amenity and public health. Councils with fortnightly collections will not receive government funding and are short-changing their residents with an inferior service.′

For more information, visit: www.gov.uk