The '2020' group of Conservatives has published a report examining resource efficiency issues and looking at ways waste policy might be amended to improve the quality of recyclates which might then be used as manufacturing inputs.
Most of the report is fairly underwhelming but there is an interesting proposal that Local Authorities should be allowed to offer residents council tax rebates to reward them for reducing contamination in the recyclate they put out.
This policy would be well targeted, as the best way to improve quality of material along the supply chain is to reduce the contaminants/non-target materials entering the recyclate stream in the first place. Unfortunately I am not convinced that this policy would work in practice, not least due to the inherent low value of recyclates collected from households.
There are around 23 million households in England, which put out around 10.5 million tonnes of material for recycling and composting. These materials could probably generate revenues in the region of £700m at current prices, which equates to around £30/household. Not much scope for cutting bills which are £100 per month on average in England. I doubt a 2.5% cut would have much of an influence on behaviour at all.
