Day 075 - 17 Jan 95 - Page 40
1 Q. And the cost?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. The right for a Local Authority to impose that tax is now
5 established as Federal law in Germany?
6 A. In Germany as I understand it, yes.
7
8 Q. In fact I think it has been said in court that McDonald's
9 are appealing against that, but it is in fact law in
10 Germany, yes? Is that a yes?
11 A. So far as I know it is, yes.
12
13 Q. So is that a recognition that the cost for local
14 authorities, or do you recognise that the cost for local
15 authorities is not just the sheer collection of environment/index.html">litter; it
16 is also the whole management of the waste stream from
17 beginning to end, it is ultimately what it costs the local
18 authority?
19 A. Well, it depends. You have a slightly different system
20 in terms of government and levels of government
21 responsibility in Germany from what you do here. There is
22 at the present time a distinction between a waste disposal
23 authority and a waste collection authority. So far as the
24 local authority is concerned, depending on what level you
25 are talking about, it a cost which is the cost of
26 collection.
27
28 Q. In Germany?
29 A. Here and others have a waste disposable. The great
30 debate at the moment is whether or not the new
31 Environmental Protection Agency will take on some
32 responsibility for the monitoring of all that and how waste
33 disposal authorities may or may not be constituted. So the
34 answer to your question is that in this country the cost is
35 the cost of collection.
36
37 Q. So who actually pays for the management of the disposal?
38 A. The waste disposal authority whoever or whatever that
39 is and it varies from place to place; some are county
40 councils, some are specially constituted waste disposal
41 authority and they may precept on the council or not.
42
43 Q. Where do they get their funding from?
44 A. They may precept on the district council and they may
45 give it credit. You are familiar with the credit system
46 whereby a waste disposal authority can give credit to a
47 council for reducing the amount it sends to them to dispose
48 of.
49
50 Q. Ultimately the payment for the management of waste after it
51 has been collected generally accrues to the local
52 ratepayers, does it?
53 A. Well, one way or another, in my opinion, it accrues to
54 members of the general public. You either pay for it
55 through your rates or you pay for it in increased cost of
56 the product that you send back. One way or another the
57 customer or the member of the general public pays for it.
58 That seems to me to be inevitable.
59
60 Q. So, in fact, the reduction of waste, if it can be reduced,
