Economics -
Raising Money 3
A
new tax on chewing gum, polystyrene food wrappers
and cash machine receipts is being introduced in
Ireland in a bid to crack down on litter louts.
The new levy follows on from the successful
"plastic bag tax" which has
dramatically cut the number of carrier bags
littering Irish streets in the past 18 months.
Announcing the move, Environment Minister Martin
Cullen, said, "I wouldn't want to describe
Ireland as a filthy country by any means because
we have changed our ways a lot in recent years,
but we still have a long way to go." Mr
Cullen said the chewing gum tax - expected to add
three to seven pence to the price of a packet -
will help fund special "gum-buster"
machines.
"All we have to do is look down on our
streets, our footpaths, our pavements right
across the country," he told Irish radio.
"It is costing local authorities millions
every year to clean this up and I feel we have to
have a polluter paid principle on this where the
people who use chewing gum should pay a small
tax." Another levy on polystyrene food
wrapping will be introduced in a bid to make fast
food chains switch to recyclable packaging. A
spokesman for the minister also confirmed that a
tax would be introduced on ATM receipts, but said
there were no details on the levy yet.
Environment
Minister Michael Meacher said the government was
considering the idea of charging householders to
get their bins emptied, with the biggest rubbish
producers made to pay the most. Mr Meacher said
people were already paying for waste collection
as part of their council tax. "The problem
with that is we're all paying the same
amount," he said, "So, if you generate
a very little level of waste, say 20lbs worth in
weight or something like that and someone else
generates 200 lbs worth in weight, both pay the
same amount, even though it costs 10 times more
to dispose of one compared to the other. The
rationale for the proposal, which we're certainly
looking at, is that people should pay in some way
related to the waste that they generate."
The UK produces 30m tonnes of household rubbish
every year, 78% of which is dumped in landfill
sites. Mr Meacher said 3-4% rises in the amount
of rubbish every year would see refuse doubling
over 20 years. "That is simply not
sustainable, we have got to change
direction," he said. Mr Meacher suggested
financial incentives might be one way of
encouraging more recycling, along with new ways
of allowing people to recycle waste. In England
and Wales 11% of waste is recycled, compared to
47% in Holland and 4% in Scotland. The government
aims to increase the UK levels to 33% by 2015.
Chancellor
Gordon Brown raised British taxes more than any
other country in Europe. From 1997 to 2002,
overall tax rates came down in 13 EU countries.
Only Portugal and the UK increased tax rates, and
the UK increase was nearly 50 per cent higher
than Portugal’s. Among the world’s
seven wealthiest nations — America, Canada,
Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Britain —
only Britain and Japan raised taxes.
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