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Recycling: would you do more if there was a cash incentive?

Johnson: I'll pay people for recycling their rubbish

Pippa Crerar, Political Correspondent
27.03.08

Boris Johnson unveiled his green manifesto today with a plan to pay Londoners to recycle.

The Tory mayoral candidate pledged to boost household recycling by up to 200 per cent and reduce waste sent to landfill. He said he would work with the boroughs to reward householders for going green - rather than fining them.

He added: "It will actually improve the lives of thousands of Londoners."

Local authorities currently pay £24 per tonne of waste sent to landfill, rising to £48 per tonne in the next three years, and are likely to pass on the cost to households through a bin tax.

But Mr Johnson proposed a scheme which operates in more than 200 US cities and towns to keep down landfill. The firm would give every household a bin and every block of flats a box for all their recyclable waste - which would be weighed when collected.

The amount recycled would then be recorded and the household issued vouchers which can be spent at various outlets. In the US, more than 300 companies including Starbucks, Ikea and Timberland are part of the scheme.

He also plans to invest £6 million in making the capital's open green spaces cleaner and safer and planting 10,000 street trees in areas which need them most. He said: "Areas that have pleasant, clean, open spaces are less likely to suffer from crime."

His other green pledges include:

• Protecting the green belt and garden spaces.

• Cutting London's carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.

• Opposing Heathrow's third runway.

• Encouraging us to install insulation in return for council tax rebates.

• Making London a genuinely cyclefriendly city, and hybrid buses

• An annual £20,000 prize for the best ideas for low carbon technology.

It comes days after Mayor Ken Livingstone claimed he was the only candidate in tune with voters' desire for urgent action on global warming.

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Boris shows just how much he is the one out of touch.
The 60% reduction in carbon emissions is already a target being implemented by Livingstone - it's been in place for a year! How good of him to oppose the third runway - so why does he want another airport to the east of London. His plan on insulation makes no sense - all new builds have to meet criteria and there is already a scheme in place relating cost of insulation to the support given.
Perhaps someone should tell Boris that London boroughs already have a green box/bin scheme, but maybe he's just learning.

- Harold, London, UK

Would you consider looking at how Japanese do on the subject? There are no recycle bins around for houses but only shops have them. Households leave their aluminium/plastic/pet bottles home recycle waste once a week on designated spots on near their homes in colourless transparent bags. Cardboard and paper string tied parcels, and the kitchen waste twice a week in yellow transparent bags on the same spots. Always before 08:00.A large and secured net drape covers the collected bags. Some Japanese citizens who felt intimidated with this decision-of transparent disposal bags usage- moved outside the city borders in Japan I was told.

- Gwneff, Kyoto-Japan

Nice idea but I think people should not be encouraged to recycle; they should be penalised for not doing so. Otherwise it is just seen as something optional.

- Emily, Bristol