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Johnson: I'll pay people for recycling their rubbish
Pippa Crerar, Political Correspondent27.03.08
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.
Reader views (15)
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
Sounds like paying people to make rubbish. What's to stop people adding the odd brick in the middle of the rubbish to add to the weight, is Boris going to pay people to check? Where is he getting all the money from, not from the congestion charge which he will reduce. The only other source of income is the poll tax.
- Mick, London, England
Give that a large percentage of the flying public come into Heathrow merely to change to another airline to continue their journey (rather than visiting London itself)it doesn't really matter where a new airport was located - there must be plenty of unused industrial land that would do. BAA have a stranglehold on British Airports and it's time their "monopoly" was broken. Heathrow does not need a third runway and, God forbid, it should go ahead, the Spanish owners should be made to carefully demolish the villages of Harmondsworth and Sipson and rebuild them in a green and pleasant location at THEIR expense!
- Geoff Salt, Harrow, United Kingdom
The question of extra runways for London is intimately connected with the wider question of Britain's population size - increases in which impact at present largely on the South East. Thus we need to know future government policy to form a considered view.
We know what Labour's policy is - unlimited increases in population. But what will the Tories do if elected?
- Mike Newland, London
Oh my god! A politician who's offering incentives instead of punitive tax. I may faint.
- Mark, London
Bravo Boris. Just the attitude I want from my Government, whether local or national. When you want to change things, incentivise, not penalise, as is the instinct of Ken and Gordon's lot.
- K, NW
Now this is what we like to hear: a politician willing to give us carrots, rather than sticks.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, UK
Excellent idea Boris. At last a politician who offers more carrot than stick. Unlike Labour who offer lots and lots of stick and absolutely no carrot.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Ken of Bexleyheath,UK says with regard to the third runway "Heathrow is going to need it". For whom exactly? 45% of through traffic are only changing planes in London to go elsewhere. They do not benefit the British economy only the pockets of the Spanish owners of Heathrow - for which all of London must suffer. What a ridiculous situation.
"Ken of Bexleyheath" is clearly a PR man paid to blog by the Spanish owners of Heathrow.
- Jane, London
Can I be the first to enter the competition for the £20,000. My idea - pretty low tech - get rid of Ken and save on all those air miles.
- Brian Chapman, Clapham, London UK
But where is the money for this going to come from? Boris seems to be making wild promises without the accounting to back them up.
- Kim, North London
A word of advice to Boris: go easy on your opposition to the third runway. Heathrow is going to need it, no matter how vociferous the environmental lobby. The only alternative to Heathrow expansion is to close the place and rebuild it elsewhere, and as far as I'm aware that is beyond the remit of the mayor of London.
- Ken, Bexleyheath,UK
Sounds reasonable, certainly better than taxing people, the only fault I can see with this system is what's to stop other people just swapping their empty green wheelie bins with your full ones?
- Prof B Honeydew, Camden
