asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are considering the introduction of separate charges for refuse collection by local authorities in England, on either a compulsory or permissive basis.[HL6441]

We have no current plans to introduce charging for household waste. The Government are considering what further steps are needed to tackle household waste as part of the review of the waste strategy, which will be published later this year. We are also looking at the spending pressures local authorities face, with regard to waste management, ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Variable charging is one of a number of tools that could be used to encourage waste minimisation and recycling of household waste. Local authorities already have powers to run incentive schemes or require householders to separate their waste for recycling. Recent research shows that at least half of English local authorities have run, or are running, some form of incentive scheme and some, such as Barnet, require householders to separate their recycling.

Many countries, including some in the European Union, have introduced successful household waste charging schemes, achieving reductions in waste arisings and increases in the separation of waste for recycling.