A BOLD new government strategy to make businesses pay their share of recycling costs has been cautiously welcomed by opposition parties in Swindon.

The Waste and Resource Strategy announced yesterday by the Environment Secretary Michael Gove includes standardised rules for collection, hoping to rejuvenate static levels of household recycling, and will implement a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks bottles by 2023.

In addition, in a shift to earlier policies, the strategy will ask companies to pay higher fees on products that are harder to recycle, such as black plastic trays, to incentivise the manufacture of more re-usable packaging.

The ambitious strategy was welcomed by local opposition party figures, who added that the timescale and delivery should be closely scrutinised.

Sarah Church, Labour parliamentary candidate for South Swindon, said: “From my perspective there’s an awfully long time for consultation there. In five years another 28 billion plastic bottles are going to be in the ocean.

“That ambition needs to be realised a lot more quickly.

“The devil of this will be in the detail and the timeline for delivery. You can’t rush in with the design of these levers, you have to make sure you don’t have unintended consequences.

“It’s really good we’ll be getting more uniformity in the recycling system. At the moment it’s a postcode lottery, and people are confused and I’m sure far more waste goes into general waste that could be recycled.

“It must also not be done in isolation and with an understanding how local councils are going to be funded.

“You have to look at how the financial models of councils are going to work. It has to be coherent, and something that won’t end up being a net cost, given that within the next two years local government funding will be cut to nothing.”

“It’s always encouraging for campaigners to have their voices heard and see an item move up the political agenda. It’s been years of relentless campaigning and its starting to pay off.”

Andy Bentley, the Green Party candidate for North Swindon, told the Adver the policy showed promise but lacked urgency and ambition.

“Overall the strategy is a step in the right direction,” he said, “with moves towards the circular economy that the Green Party has been calling for.

“The ‘polluter pays’ principle, more recycling and less waste, are all good ideas, but long overdue.

“I hope that the consultations it will rely on are tough ones, and they don’t allow big business to carry on as usual.

“There will be much talk about the additional cost to manufacturers and producers. There’s little mention of the existing cost to consumers, and the public at large.

“It’s us that has to pay to clean up the mess that is created by the throwaway economy we’ve got now and the cost to human health and the planet resulting from the waste and pollution the current system generates.”