Skipper

Jackie Ashley is right to focus on the topic of waste disposal in today's Guardian. Such topics are often regarded with the ennui with which many reserve for local politics, but if we are honest, we all care about the issue and recognize its importance. The green arguments in favour of recycling do not need repeating but it always strikes me as pathetic that while countries like Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium can recycle over half of their waste, we can manage only a measly 23 per cent.

An EU directive-essentially with statutory effect- states landfill sites must not be used so prodigally; within 15 years only one third of our waste can be so disposed. So, as in so many respects regarding the environment, we have to change our ways. In Stockport we now have black plastic bins for the purpose-collected fortnightly- but only for bottles and tins; I have to drive to the local tip to recycle other materials like cardboard and plastics. Ireland introduced a tax on plastic bags- only a small tax- and it has led to a 90 per cent reduction in usage with consequent benefits for the environment. Ashley says Michael Meacher was about to introduce the same scheme in the UK but was prevented by being reshuffled out of government. Why on earth cannot wunderkind David Miliband introduce a measure which is both easy, necessary and proven to work?

German Rubbish Disposal Practice
Everyone knows the Germans are 'relentlessly efficient', but that often pejorative stereotype should not prevent us from admiring the good things they do. My sister lives in a small village in Bavaria and tells me she has separate bins for recycling paper, glass, tins, cardboard, plastic and various species of wrapping. These are then regularly taken to recycle depots in each village where volunteers assist with loading into the respective skips and bins. In addition they have 'compost' bins for biodegradable material-food and the like- which are collected fortnightly in winter and weekly in summer. This helps explain why such a commendably high percentage of waste is recycled in Deutchland.

But, I hear you object, Brits are not like our beach colonizing Teutonic cousins; we would never take the trouble to sort out so many different items. Well, in Germany the incentive is financial; the more you recycle, the less you pay for the rubbish which is collected. Each household chooses a size of bin- small, medium ahnd large-and pay different annual fees for each size; the average family of four pay about £100 a year for rubbish collection. If you overfill your bin, it will be refused- and we all know how corporation operatives over here would love doing that. If it hit our pockets, as in Germany, we would, I suspect, soon change our habits to the advantage of the environment. Why on earth are we so slow to adopt best practice?