I got home from holiday last night in the early hours of the morning and, sorting through the mail behind the door, came across a leaflet from Fife Council letting me know about its new recycling arrangements. The Council has targets to meet in relation to recycling. By 2013, the council must divert 50% of household waste from landfill to recycling and it's currently only recycling 54% so stringent new measures are needed if it's to meet the target of 70% by 2025. Only 13 years to close that gap! Best get cracking now.
Eh? What? Don't get me wrong. I've nothing against recycling. Actually, that's not true but I do it anyway. Composting, paper, glass etc. The lot. I don't even mind having four bins festering in the driveway for up to four weeks between collections.
But where did these targets come from? Why is Fife Council so desperate to exceed them and how do we get them for cycling? Is it the old adage: what gets measured gets done? Here is Fife ahead of its targets for recycling striving to do more. It's figures for cycling are decidedly average.
The reason councils are so keen to hit (and exceed) its recycling targets is Landfill Tax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_tax), which gives it a clear incentive to reduce the level of waste going to Landfill.
From a cycling point of view, what we really need is a combined air pollution/congestion tax (the two things are linked so could easily be combined) to incentivise councils to make serious efforts to encourage a modal shift to active travel. Well that is the idea, I just need to work out the details.
Posted by: Kim | 07/25/2012 at 11:16 PM