'Polluter pays'

Minister Cullen wants us all to pay for our waste according to the volume we produce. I suppose, given the problems we have with landfills, that's fair enough, although it is anti-family. (Families generate a lot more waste than single people or even a household of two adults.) However, before he rolls out such a scheme, I hope some pressure can be brought to bear on our own local refuse collectors – Greenstar.

If I'm going to pay for the amount of waste I generate (as opposed to the amount of recyclables I use, presumably) Greenstar should ensure that they are as flexible with regards to recyclables as other local authorities. We are forbidden from putting juice and milk cartons into our recyclables bags, yet in most other areas that I'm aware of, juice and milk cartons are allowed in the recyclables. These two items probably make up 30% of my refuse each week. Without those, I could probably get down to one big bag of waste every two weeks.

{The article from the Independent seems to believe that paying by volume and paying by weight are the same thing. Obviously, that's not true.}