{"id":352462,"date":"2025-08-17T20:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352462\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T20:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:16:10","slug":"bin-smart-meter-could-be-brought-in-to-charge-brits-for-how-much-they-throw-away-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352462\/","title":{"rendered":"Bin smart meter could be brought in to charge Brits for how much they throw away | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brits could one day be billed for the weight of their rubbish<\/a> under proposals to revive a controversial \u201cpay-as-you-throw\u201d (PAYT) system. The idea, likened to a \u201csmart meter for bins\u201d, would see lorries weigh household waste during collection<\/a>, with charges passed on to residents.<\/p>\n

Advocates say it could reduce waste<\/a>, boost recycling, and even bring down council tax bills. The model has been used successfully in the Netherlands<\/a>, South Korea and parts of the United States. South Korea, for instance, boasts an 86% recycling rate thanks to a PAYT system that charges households for food waste but makes recycling free.<\/p>\n

Britain briefly experimented with the policy in 2005, when 50,000 homes in South Norfolk trialled the scheme. But technical failures \u2013 including faulty microchips, inaccurate readings and missed collections \u2013 led to chaos, confusion and a 250% surge in fly-tipping.<\/p>\n

The trial was swiftly scrapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology just didn\u2019t work,\u201d admitted John Fuller, then leader of South Norfolk Council. \u201cIf you want to base a tax system on it, it has to work in every bin, in every street, on every day of the year. Otherwise the figures are nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two decades later, however, campaigners told The Telegraph<\/a> the landscape has changed.<\/p>\n

Waste frustrations are at an all-time high, with many councils introducing add-on fees for services such as garden waste.<\/p>\n

At the same time, council tax has climbed steeply \u2013 from taking 2.4% of the lowest incomes in 2002 to 4.6% in 2021.<\/p>\n

Mark Hall, of waste firm Business Waste, argues the policy deserves a second look.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment policy is shifting towards a polluter-pays principle,\u201d he said. \u201cIf PAYT can lower bills and cut waste, it\u2019s hard to see why people wouldn\u2019t back it, especially in a cost-of-living crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

But cost remains a major stumbling block. Equipping Britain\u2019s ageing fleet of bin lorries with on-board weighing technology could be prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

Instead, experts suggest simpler models \u2013 such as requiring households to buy special bags or stickers, as happens in thousands of US cities.<\/p>\n

Supporters insist the benefits could be transformative. Research by the Institute for European Environmental Policy found little evidence of discontent where PAYT has been introduced, with many communities reporting higher support after implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brits could one day be billed for the weight of their rubbish under proposals to revive a controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11509,51,932,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-352462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bin-collection","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-council-tax","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115045950073284331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}