Caroline Lucas has some largely justified criticism of George Osborne's backsliding on the Environment. She could also mention the peculiar position of Eric Pickles.
The government has a long established policy, going back many years, of using the landfill tax to encourage more recycling. The tax makes disposing of waste by landfill far more expensive than recycling. For most local authorities, the best way to increase recycling is alternate weekly collections (as has just been adopted in Brent). Yet Pickles is trying to retard this move to greater recycling by offering a cash incentive not to do it. Were he successful, which I am sure he will not be, he would also add to the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, since waste in landfill is a major source.
Incidentally, at this time when the Tories and Lib Dems have decided to cut budgets so savagely, how did they find £250 million to pay for Eric Pickles' vanity project?
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