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Environment: Tories plan vouchers to reward people who recycle more waste
By Allegra Stratton, political correspondent

Households will be rewarded by a Conservative government for recycling waste with vouchers worth up to £360 a year, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, will say tonight. In a speech to the Green Alliance sustainable development body, Osborne will outline plans to bring to the UK an American recycling scheme that would reward people for recycling.

Recycle Bank works with over 500 cities and community groups in America, reducing the amount local government pays in landfill tax by rewarding households for recycling. Some of the money saved goes back to the household in points notched up on a electronic card which can then be redeemed at local stores, and is worth on average $50 a month, according to the Conservatives.

Osborne will say: "The government's approach is an old-fashioned one: use the threat of fines and punitive taxation to force people to recycle. We've all seen how unpopular this heavy-handed approach has been with the public.

"Instead of using sticks we can use carrots. There is also an equity dimension. While the poorest households were previously the least likely to recycle, as soon as they started receiving a financial incentive for recycling [in the US], they typically become amongst the most likely to recycle."

The initiative to be announced by Osborne is close to being introduced by one council, Windsor and Maidenhead. Tory councillor Liam Maxwell said: "We'll pilot Recycle Bank by the end of the year for three months and roll it out shortly afterwards. We had a real problem with the fortnightly bin collection at the local elections. We want to do this because it saves us money."

He imagined the Recycle Bank vouchers could be redeemable at restaurants. "If they are vouchers to be redeemed then you have to offer rewards people want - so it may well be that we do it for local curry houses." The Conservatives said the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, would also use his position as chair of the capital's waste authority to encourage London councils to take up the scheme within months.

Osborne will locate Recycle Bank firmly within the Conservative's "nudge" agenda, based on the social theories of American sociologists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein that have influenced US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Mike Warhurst, of Friends of the Earth, said: "The Conservatives claim that the government is taxing people's rubbish, but in reality the government's scheme doesn't let councils make any money from collecting people's rubbish. So the question is, is there really any difference?"