There's coverage on the BBC website today of the Council's bid for funding to launch a rebate scheme for people who recycle regularly. This would be a pilot scheme and after some pretty hefty lobbying, the area covered will include Cotham, along with Redland and Bishopston. These areas have some of the highest recycling rates in the city (and the country, in fact), so they're a natural place to trial this.
The scheme would work on by weight, with households getting a cash rebate on a per kilogram basis for their recycling, weighed by special bins. It will be completely voluntary, with no penalties for people who don't take part or who don't recycle. It follows a number of models that already operate very successfully on the Continent, but it would be one of the first schemes of its kind in the UK.
The maximum rebate would work out at something like £17.50 per year - not big bucks, but a little 'thank you' and encouragement to others. I have suggested that residents should be able to automatically donate their rebate to an environmental charity of their choice.
Whether this goes ahead depends on whether DEFRA will fund it. They were all keen about this sort of thing until there was a tabloid witch-hunt about council staff hiding in wheelie bins or something; a witch-hunt by the same tabloids (i.e. the Daily Mail) that moan if Council Tax rises are too high! Now DEFRA have cooled off a bit, but as this scheme is completely voluntary, hopefully they will take the opportunity to try something new.
This is all part of the Lib Dem pledge to get recycling rates in Bristol up to 50% by the end of 2010. Other parts of the city are getting kerbside plastic recycling collections or extra effort to promote food waste recycling.
9 comments:
Excellent news, the witch hunters are out and about already. The post needs a little correction - the rebate is not on amount recycled but on the amount NOT sent to landfill. The former is impractical and not particularly desirable, we don't want people going out of their way to find rubbish to recycle. Gary Hopkins had a really good interview on Radio 4 this morning where he described the system very clearly and clearly beat "big brother" guy into specious arguments.
Rick - you're right with your correction. I was glossing slightly to avoid getting into detail, but the rebate would be based on the creating less residual waste than a pre-arranged amount. The two routes to this would be to cut waste production (buy stuff with less packaging) or increase recycling.
I've got my own residual waste down to one very light black black every two months or so, so I'm pretty confident of meeting the target!
I've just been blogging on the same topic, Neil, but I'm afraid I don't share your confidence (and no, it's not because of the 'Town Hall Spies' threat).
Possibly because it's not clear what's being rewarded. Is it a net level of waste below a council-prescribed target ? Or is it the reduction over time during the period of the trial? I can't find any clear description of what's being measured, in spite of the global spread of the story!
Pete - I have the full bid document, which is clearer. I don't think I can let you have a copy due to commercial sensitivity (i.e. it's under assessment by DEFRA and has CONFIDENTIAL on it). The basic principle is that it's a rebate for every kilo under a target weight per household.
So, I (and plenty of others!) would almost certainly meet this already, whereas would have to change behaviours to get it. The idea is that you use it to encourage new people into large-scale recycling and waste avoidance.
As I say, plenty of examples from the Continent (in Holland and Belgium in particular), where is part of the toolkit that has got some cities to 70%.
Thanks, Neil
What you say makes more sense (though there are, of course, criticisms to be made) than the system that's being described in the recycling press. From this one, for instance:
"...a pilot incentive scheme that would give residents the chance to receive cash incentives of up to £40 depending on how much they manage to reduce their waste.
....... The amount of waste residents need to reduce will be calculated in kilograms and worked out per person, to take into account the number of people living in a household."
The emphasis here seems to be on actual reductions, not on maintaining already established low throwaway rates. In a way, that would be better (certainly cheaper!), but it's hard to see what it would achieve outside the self-selecting sample of triallists.
Pete - I think there is a lot of glossing in the press about how it works. Some people will inevitably get freebies, but this should stimulate others to join in to get their share.
There are other issues to work out, like how it would operate in flats and other places with shared bins. But this is the point of a pilot - identify the issues and iron them out before taking it to the parts of the city that are less enthusiastic recyclers.
Let's see if DEFRA bite...
It's hardly surprising that there's 'glossing' in the press if the plans are 'CONFIDENTIAL' is it?
Why on earth is a small recycling scheme shrouded in confidentiality?
This country is run by paranoid loonies.
Now now, Blogger, don't talk about the Labour Party like that... 8-)
The bid has costings and operational details for the contractors, so I guess that is the reason for why it's not public - very useful information for their competitors.
In my 'real life' job, I write funding bids and it is always done on this basis.
I thought we were supposed to operate in a free market?
For that to work costings and operational details should all be in the public domain to enable open and fair competition.
Another 'myth of a free market'.
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