Herefordshire and Worcestershire pay £8m landfill tax

Councils in Herefordshire and Worcestershire have paid more than £8m in landfill tax.

Figures obtained by the BBC show Worcestershire County Council paid £5.8m and Herefordshire Council paid £2.4m between April 2010 and 2011.

Landfill targets are set by the EU and taxes imposed by central government.

Worcestershire County Councillor Anthony Blagg said: "We've made huge leaps forward in recycling and less is going to landfill."

Worcestershire sent around 127,000 tonnes of waste to landfill while Herefordshire sent about 56,000 tonnes.

The tax is charged by weight and the standard rate is £56 per tonne from April 2011 and increases by £8 per tonne each year.

Mr Blagg said: "The cost of actually sending to landfill is more and there is a higher population in somewhere like Worcestershire so we throw more away.

"We have a multi-pronged attack on waste - the first thing we want to do is stop people sending waste into the system in the first place.

"Obviously if it's not sent to the council, the tax payer doesn't have to pay for the disposal."

The most recent figures for Worcestershire compare to £4.7m between April 2005 and 2006, while Herefordshire paid £2.2m in the same period.