'Bin bag tax' scheme piloted

In a six-month pilot scheme aimed at encouraging residents to recycle more, householders will be provided with 26 specially colour-coded bin bags - one for each week.

For the duration of the trial, refuse collectors will only pick up rubbish left in the official bin bags.

Householders have been told that any rubbish left out for collection in ordinary black bin bags will not be picked up. However, if they produce more than one bin bag of rubbish per week, they can buy extra bags for 28p.

The controversial scheme, which could see larger families who produce more rubbish forced to pay an additional cost, is being trialled by Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire. It will run from November 8 in the Goffs Oak and Rye Park areas.

Householders are being given four weeks to get used to the new regime. But after the fifth collection, residents who continue to put out their rubbish in black sacks will risk enforcement action.

On its website the council said it hopes to reduce the rubbish put out by each household by 1.5kg per week and increase recycling by the same amount.

If the pilot is successful the scheme may be rolled out throughout the rest of the borough.

But the scheme has not gone down well with some residents. BT worker Jack Jerome, 54, told the Daily Mail: "I have a large family, with children and grandchildren at the house all the time. We do recycle, but we still produce five or six bags of rubbish a week.

"We already pay £138 a month in council tax and this looks like more tax by the back door."