Leading article: It is time to turn green rhetoric into reality

There suddenly seems to be a deep interest in the contents of our dustbins. It has emerged that some 500,000 British wheelie bins have been fitted with electronic "bugs" to record the volume of waste produced by each home - which has come as a surprise to the users of the bins. Meanwhile, the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank has argued that councils should be given powers to charge households for getting rid of non-recyclable rubbish. This follows remarks by the Environment minister, Ben Bradshaw, earlier this month that the Government is considering introducing a "polluter pays" principle into its waste strategy. All this suggests that the day when we are charged directly for what we throw out could be approaching.

Such an innovation would be welcome. Of course, the local authorities responsible for planting these devices in bins should have been open about what they were doing. People do not generally respond positively if they feel they are being spied upon. But, nevertheless, it is a good sign that councils seem to be making provision for charging residents for the disposal of their non-recyclable rubbish, even if they have gone about it in a less than transparent way.

There will inevitably be complaints. Some will claim that charging for rubbish collection is yet another stealth tax. But the principle that the polluter should pay is an entirely fair one. Those who throw out a lot should pay more, and those who make an effort to recycle should pay less. Others will object to the compulsory aspect of such a scheme. But we need not detain ourselves too long with such complaints. The stark fact is that Britain is running out of landfill sites. Those who fail, or refuse, to recycle are not making a decision that affects only themselves. They are despoiling a common good: namely, the environment. Such behaviour is, in fact, as antisocial as fly-tipping.

We should also bear in mind that there is little evidence that a charging scheme would provoke widespread hostility, provided it is handled sensitively. A poll conducted for the Local Government Association found that a majority of the public would be happy with a system that charged households by the amount of rubbish they left out, if it meant they would pay less basic council tax. And such schemes have been shown to work elsewhere in Europe.

In fact, the real cause for complaint in this area is that Britain continues to lag so far behind other countries. We recycled and composted only 18 per cent of our waste in 2004. Only Greece and Portugal in the European Union have a worse record. The bad habits of our "throwaway society" are well documented. But UK industry is not doing enough either. Some 70 million tonnes of industrial waste is sent to landfill every year, of which 13 million tonnes are surplus material delivered to building sites. For all this Government's green rhetoric it has an extremely patchy record in persuading individuals and companies to be less wasteful.

Drastic measures are needed if we are to catch up with our continental peers. The Local Government Association has warned that councils are facing fines of £150 per tonne of rubbish if they fail to meet targets set out under the European Union landfill directive - targets that our own government signed up to. Such fines would mean yet another rise in council taxes. It appears to be this pressure that has finally persuaded the Government to address the issue. The EU has, once again, proved its value as a guardian of our environment. Now it is up to our government to fulfil its end of the bargain.