Pay as you throw - waste and recycling

Pay-as-you-throw wheelie bins with microchips could be introduced to make householders pay for their rubbish and cut down on their waste.

The Local Government Association (LGA) outlined three different schemes which councils in England could use to cut the amount of rubbish residents throw away.

The first would be a system in which householders buy different sized pre-paid rubbish sacks - a scheme which could be used in urban areas where wheelie bins are not always practical.

The second would be the use of microchips in wheelie bins which would allow the amount of rubbish to be weighed as it was loaded on to the refuse truck. Residents would then be billed for the amount of waste they created.

The third option for councils would be a scheme in which householders choose the size of the wheelie bin they use, based on how much rubbish they think they will generate, and are charged accordingly.

Do YOU think this is a good idea or not? Will we have people leaving excess packaging in supermarkets so that they don't need to put it in their bins at home? Will neighbours be sneaking out in the middle of the night to fill someone else's bin? Will people padlock their wheelie bins? Can you but an alarm for your wheelie bin? Why should we all pay to get rid of "junk" mail that we didn't ask for in the first place? A lot of questions to be answered ............ but we DO need to recycle more and stop filling the landfill sites. What else can we do?