Deposits on newspapers
P.M. Bailey
Just as manufacturers in Canada are forced by law to offer a deposit on soft drink cans (which incidentally might be desirable in Britain too), so publishers of newspapers could be forced to offer a deposit on newspapers returned to the newsagents. The scheme would need to be enforced by law as it would be resisted by both publishers and newsagents, and would give an advantage to competitors if one publisher tried to introduce it on his own, putting up prices to cover costs.
'Publishers of newspapers could be forced to offer a deposit on newspapers returned to the newsagents'
Maybe this idea's time has not yet come, but I do not feel too disheartened. The best ideas I have ever had have always lain around ripening for a few years before they come out and get themselves achieved. When it is due, it will pop out.
P. M. Bailey, 44 Sparrowmire Lane, Hallgarth, Kendal, Cumbria (tel 0539 733204).
Editorial comment
The deposits might have to be too high to make economic sense. Roger Knights suggests instead that lottery tickets be offered, which could be financed by a very small increase in the price of the papers. This system could work in a number of ways. Nicholas Saunders, Josefine Speyer and I, for instance, have discussed three possibilities:
(1) You parcel up your old newspapers in string, put your name and address on the parcel and deposit it in the recycling bin. When the bin is unloaded at the recycling centre you are allocated lottery tickets in proportion to the weight of your contribution.
(2) As above, except that you take your parcel to the larger newsagent or recycling centre locally, your contribution is weighed, and you are given lottery tickets on the spot. The newsagent, say, would then dump your papers in the nearest recycling bin and would also win lottery tickets per bin load (and the bin loads, to prevent fraud, would need approximately to match the number of tickets given out to the public by the newsagent).
(3) As with number (1) above, except that each tiny neighbourhood would have its own volunteer collector, who would use a hand weighing device to weigh contributions left out on a particular day each week by local people, would post the relevant number of lottery tickets through their letterboxes, and would then either leave them ready for the dustmen's special collection or would take them to the recycling bin. The volunteer coordinator would also be rewarded with proportionate numbers of lottery tickets.
'A national target for use of recycled fibre, and then allowing papers that beat it to sell their spare share'
(4) The simplest way for all this recycled paper to find a guaranteed market might be to establish rising target percentages of recycled paper that each newspaper must contain by particular years, through a system of tax incentives and penalties, or tradable permits, leaving it to the newspapers to devise their own preferred ways of ensuring that there are adequate supplies of recycled paper.
The tradable permits were suggested by Project 88, an American public-policy study - they work by setting newspapers a national target for use of recycled fibre, and then allowing papers that beat it to sell their spare 'share' to others that failed to meet it.
This last paragaph is adapted from an editorial in the Economist, monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.
Financial incentives to be 'good'
The intriguing general principle that emerged from our discussion was that evil and greed have their financial rewards in society, but that there are few financial incentives at present to be 'good'. Lottery tickets could become a main currency for training the public in socially desirable behaviour, or for any activities for which it would be too costly to offer individual pay, as a reward for everything from recycling to car sharing.
'There are few financial incentives at present to be 'good'. Ideally, goodness would be financed from penalties for evil'
Ideally, goodness would be financed from penalties for evil, with court and other fines going into financing lotteries or into funds for non-offenders or into projects of community benefit. H. Macdonald, for instance, writes to the Institute proposing that people would receive a cheque each year accompanying their local government tax bill, as an equal share of the year's fines in that area - with the advantage that this would help console those living in areas with many offenders.
H. Macdonald, 8 Wilton Street, Brook Foot, Brighouse, Yorks. See also the item on Community Penitence Stamps in the chapter on Crime.
Previous / Next / Table of Contents