'Slop out scraps - or face fine' - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

'Slop out scraps - or face fine'

Household tax bills could be calculated on how much rubbish people throw away under plans unveiled by ministers this week, with families facing face fines if they fail to store food scraps in "slop buckets".

The measures are expected to be contained in the Government's long-awaited waste strategy document, to be launched by Environment Secretary David Miliband.

Mr Miliband is desperate to reduce the country's waste mountain by encouraging people to recycle more and throw away less.

Local authorities could be allowed to introduce schemes that rewarded households for behaving in a "green" fashion, with one suggestion being that prolific recyclers receive council tax rebates.

According to the Sunday Times, Mr Miliband will set out recommendations that councils send food waste to "anaerobic digesters" - which would produce methane that can then be burnt for energy.

They may be allowed to punish people who do not save up their scraps for use in the process.

He is also likely to suggest that giant incinerators be used to "cleanly" burn more than a fifth of the rubbish that cannot be recycled.

News in brief in Pictures

Don't Miss
The Glamour Awards - stars turn on the style

Glamour Awards

Stars turn on the style
Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink at her first Buckingham Palace garden party

Garden party

Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink
FIRST review of Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi blockbuster Prometheus

First review

Is Ridley Scott's Prometheus any good?
Fair-weather goths

Fair-weather goths

The sultry shades of summer darks are coming out of the shadows
London gets ready for the Diamond Jubilee - in pictures

Diamond Jubilee

London gets ready - in pictures
Dog save the Queen: Corgis surge in popularity

Dog save the Queen

Corgis surge in popularity
'He’s a better ex than he was a husband', says Boris Johnson's ex wife

A better ex than husband

We talk to Boris Johnson's ex wife
TV Baftas - in pictures

Best of the Baftas

Stars on the red, white and blue carpet
You big softie: Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?

You big softie

Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?
Pop star Paloma Faith, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video

Gay marriage

Pop star, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video