Review of the Papers, Thursday 23 August

**Government  **

• Householders may be charged to dispose of their rubbish through the use of prepaid waste sacks or wheelie bins with microchips. The Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday that people may also have to pay according to the size of the wheelie bin that they use. However, the association emphasised that the "save as you throw" plan would not be a stealth tax. The proposals are part of a response to the Government's plans for a waste-charging scheme. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has proposed laws allowing individual councils to set up incentive schemes in which residents earn a rebate for putting out less rubbish for collection but are charged if they put out more. The LGA announcement was made as a survey indicated that nearly three in four people are unhappy with the move to fortnightly collections for household rubbish. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2310443.ece  
• The row over whether Gordon Brown should have a referendum on the EU treaty took a new turn yesterday with trade union leaders joining Conservatives in calling for a public vote on the issue. The prime minister looks set to face an embarrassing defeat at next month's TUC conference on the referendum issue - with three unions in favour of an active "no" campaign to urge the public to throw out the proposed changes altogether. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2154233,00.html