£5 to remove rubbish sacks

A rubbish tax of £5 a month to tackle Britain's mountain of household waste is the latest extraordinary idea being floated in government circles.

Binmen would limit their free collections to two sacks a week from each home. Householders would have to pay the £5 tax if they regularly filled more, based on a valuation of £1 per sack.

Reports today claimed that the idea of charging to cut waste has Treasury backing and will be floated by No10 this autumn. But there are fears it could bring a massive growth in illegal fly-tipping as householders dump their rubbish to avoid the tax.

There would also be resentment at the double charging involved, since rubbish removal is included in the services provided by paying council tax.

Environment Minister Michael Meacher has previously ruled out charging. But Downing Street's Performance and Innovation Unit launched a review of the waste industry last December with a series of questions, including: "How do we fund the changes we require to waste management? Should we charge households? Should waste taxes be increased?"

Mr Meacher has already provoked anger from supermarkets with a proposal to charge shoppers about 10p in tax for each plastic carrier bag they take at the checkout till. A similar tax in Ireland has brought a huge reduction in the use of carrier bags.

The rubbish collection charging scheme, which is backed by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, would aim to encourage householders to recycle or compost as much waste as possible.

It would run alongside free doorstep collections of waste paper, cans, glass and plastics for recycling. Alternative plans include charging £1 a sack to take away more than one or two sacks a week, or weighing wheelie-bins as they are tipped into dustcarts and making residents pay for excess weight.

Councils could be asked to launch trial schemes to see which of the ideas, if any, proves a success. Charges could also be imposed on anyone taking their rubbish to a municipal tip - although experts fear this would again increase fly-tipping.

Friends of the Earth director-designate Tony Juniper said: "The Government must have the courage to do this. Simply charging people without doing anything else does not work, but neither does just encouraging people to recycle. It is time that some of the people who are very wasteful paid a penalty."

But the move would provoke anger from many families and the political fallout is likely to deter ministers from going ahead with the proposal without substantial rethinking.

Blake Lee-Harwood of Greenpeace said: "The Government is walking a policy tightrope. It is a good idea provided there is a recycling service to every home." Labour has already introduced a landfill tax on the waste industry for every tonne of rubbish dumped in a landfill site. Other examples of blue-sky thinking include:

? Double motorways. No10's transport thinker Lord Birt suggested a network of toll superhighways alongside existing motorways.

? Cashpoint fines. Tony Blair proposed that drunken yobs be marched to the nearest cash machine and forced to pay a £100 on-the-spot fine.

? Sellers' tax. Owners selling their homes would pay extra tax for each year they had lived there, in a plan floated by adviser Barry McCormick.