Municipal waste management is an ongoing problem for many western governments. In
particular, the British government is placing ever-more emphasis on the necessity to reduce
the amount of household waste being sent to landfill. The Department of the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs in the UK (DEFRA, 2002) estimates that 28.2 million tonnes of
municipal solid waste (MSW) was produced in 2000–2001, 89% of this coming from
households. In the period 1996–1997 to 2000–2001, the annual increase has averaged almost
3%. The majority of this waste is sent to landfill (78%) with recycling accounting for just
12%. Pressing government targets (DETR, 2000) forMSWare now forcing the government
to seek out new incentives for recycling, or as the Strategy Unit (2002) hinted at in its recent
report, new measures to penalise households who produce too much waste. These measures
might include variable charging for households who place extra bags of refuse out for
collection, over and above a stipulated limit.