Mayor plans rubbish fines

Households could be fined if they fail to recycle their rubbish under plans being considered by the Greater London Authority, it was revealed today.

Mayor Ken Livingstone has asked the Government for a change in the law to make the penalty possible. Meanwhile, those who recycle more than 50 per cent of their rubbish would be rewarded with a £10 discount on their council tax .

The GLA believes drastic action is needed to combat the vast mountain of waste building up in the city. The authority is also aware that the issue, of growing importance in the political arena, is one of the most important votewinners in local elections.

John Duffy, a senior political adviser to Mr Livingstone, said the scheme will be unveiled in the GLA's waste strategy, to be published later this month. "We are hoping that where the council offers a recycling service but people do not participate, they could be charged," he said.

"People have to realise it costs more money not to recycle. People who do not take the environmentallyfriendly route must pay and we are looking at ways of doing that."

The cash-back scheme has already been tested in Brent, with positive results. The number of people using their recycling boxes increased by 50 per cent when the trial began and the amount of waste recycled by residents increased by 34 per cent.

However, the researchers found that despite being offered a £10 reward to recycle for at least half of a six-month period, 40 per cent of residents did not join in. A further 12 per cent recycled once or twice before giving up, and only 22 per cent recycled for long enough to get the money.

Mr Livingstone's plans come the day after it was revealed that an idea for a £5-a-month "rubbish tax" - intended to encourage recycling - is being floated in government circles, with the charge levied on households that regularly fill more than two sacks a week.

The amount of waste produced by London has reached crisis levels. The packaging of foods has increased so much in recent years that even single bananas come wrapped in plastic from some shops.

More than four million tonnes of rubbish is produced by Londoners each year but only 11 per cent of this is recycled. London is the worst city for recycling in Europe, and is left behind by those such as Berlin, which now recycles 40 per cent of its waste.

Even the transportation of waste in London is chaotic. Rubbish from Westminster, for example, is carted in vast lorries across central London to incinerators in Deptford, or to huge landfill sites in Essex. Meanwhile, waste from southLondon is often carted up to landfill sites in Buckinghamshire, because councils have contracts with waste disposal units nowhere near their borough. Experts estimate that up to one in eight of the vehicles on London's roads are involved in some aspect of the disposal of waste.

Paul de Zylva, from Friends of the Earth, says the system of taking rubbish from each doorstep in London is in disarray. "You have the situation where lorries are criss-crossing London to dispose of waste," he said. "The only way forward is the idea of the Mayor to make a single waste management team for all of London."

In his strategy, Mr Livingstone will suggest that Londoners can no longer go on filling landfill sites - mainly because they will all be full by 2009. Although incinerating rubbish is seen as less environmentally damaging, it is not popular with those living near the sites and large incinerators have recently been refused permission to expand by the Government.

Mr Livingstone wants to see every doorstep in London provided with a recycling collection in a bid to more than double the level of recycling to 25 per cent by 2005, and topping 50 per cent by 2010.

Although councils will not be forced to adopt the cash-back scheme, any borough failing to meet the 2005 recycling targets will have its funding reduced. With such a stark choice, it is thought that many may decide that financial incentives are the only way to convince Londoners to recycle. Mr Duffy added: "We do believe in incentives. We can only set out the framework but we are keen that boroughs will pilot the scheme.

"We can see there are problems with the amount of rubbish being produced and we need realistic solutions. I think alongside recycling, new technology in the disposal of waste will be the saving grace."

Some local boroughs have already managed to improve recycling rates. Hounslow has increased the recycling of household waste from six per cent in 1996 to 17 per cent last year.

The council's Ruth Cadbury said recycling could succeed in London - with a little effort from councils to provide doorstep boxes, and nappy-laundering services to make the chore less difficult for households. "We are running a number of schemes to make recycling as easy as possible," she said.