Ratepayers in Derry and Strabane have paid out nearly five million pounds in the last three years just to have their household rubbish dumped in landfill sites. That's because the government now charges a "landfill tax" for every ton of waste - and that tax is rising steeply year on year. The price for landfilling is £40 a tonne at the moment; it'll go up to £48 per tonne next year. Soon, landfill could cost Derry City Council alone close to two million pounds a year in tax. That's despite the fact that the amount of unrecycled rubbish has dropped in the past few years. Radio Foyle's reporter, Teresa Craig, has been to the Pennyburn amenity site to find out if the rising landfill tax will encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

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See also:

UK "likely to miss" landfill targets - The Ecologist

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