UK residents could face council tax hikes of up to £50 a year unless more is done to boost recycling. The Local Government Association has warned that the UK is the worst in the European Union when it comes to the amount of rubbish is thrown into landfill, and that it will fail to meet key targets if things continue as they are.
Multi-billion pound fines for sending more items to the tip will have to be passed onto the tax payer town halls have warned. Chancellor George Osborne has also said that landfill tax will increase every year.
Around 19 million tonnes of household rubbish is thrown out in the UK every year. This amounts to at least two million tonnes more than any other European country. The total amount buried on rubbish sites must be brought down to half the level it was in 1995 by 2013 and 35 per cent by 2020, according to EU law.
Councils could be charged £180 million a year if EU targets are missed, along with an additional £8 per tonne of rubbish thrown into landfill annually. Councils are expecting to be forced to put on separate collections as the Government discusses a ban on sending food waste to the rubbish tip. They will also need to construct more incinerators and anaerobic digesters to process food if plans go ahead. The whole process would cost an estimated £50 per head for tax payers.
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