Clean-up taxes
Dublin Ireland is planning to bring in clean-up taxes on chewing gum, polystyrene fast food wrappers and bank cash machine receipts that have all become major environmental problems, the government announced yesterday
Announcing the plan, Environment Minister Martin Cullen told Irish state radio: "I feel we have to have a polluter- pays principle on this where the people who use chewing gum should pay a small tax. Hopefully it might change people's habits as well."
A tax of between five and 10 cents was being considered for each packet of gum sold in Ireland a country where some 80 million packets are sold annually.
Cullen said it was costing the tax payer millions of euros each year to fund the use of special"gum-buster'' machines to remove chewing gum left embedded on streets and pavements.