@Old_Geezer
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They'd only pay the rebate from more taxes collected from the cash cows. i.e. the citizens. Being rewarded with one's own money is a mug's game. //
Quite so. Bribing people with other taxpayer's money is off-topic for this thread so [bites lip].
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In any case we are 'paying the piper' the council should be doing what we demand not impose on us.
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I agree with this principle. Democracy as practised in ancient Greece was, supposedly like that. The candidate was a *delegate* and took the community's views to the parleying place, doing their bidding. At some point (Rome?) it flipped around to top-down, "we know best" rule, decaying into dictatorship because what people really craved was monarchy. (!!!)
Back on topic, recycling had to be imposed because there was no public demand for it (still resistance in some quarters, by all accounts - see Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's food waste doco for details). The public couldn't see the need for it which was that landfill space was being legislated out of existence by environmentalist movements, worldwide, so nations and councils faced fines for non-compliance.
Germany was way ahead of everyone else with public support for reducing landfills so, had any such fines been imposed by the EU, I wonder how/where the money would have been disbursed? Putting it back into UK (grants system) would just mean money had gone around in circles. Surely more common sense for some other country to profit from our profligacy?