Paul Bettison, who chairs the LGA's environment board, told the BBC food scrap collections might help reduce some of the smells caused by fortnightly waste collections.

BBC: Call to recycle food separately

So far the government's only economic initiatives have been to scrap an unpopular house levy and reduce the tax on overtime.

ECONOMIST: Italy��s government

Some of that could be used to reduce the deficit, and the rest to shrink or scrap the AMT.

ECONOMIST: America's fiscal deficit

Unless we scrap guzzlers at a faster rate, we will never reduce our oil consumption.

CNN: Commentary: Why 'Cash for Clunkers' works

The British Metals Recycling Association has been supporting the Scrap Metal Dealers Bill, saying a cash ban alone will not reduce metal theft.

BBC: Scrap metal cash payments banned