Residual household waste decreased by 22% from 2000/01 to 2006/07. However, in 2005, the United Kingdom still had the second highest proportion of landfill, and second lowest proportion of waste recovered, among the EU15 (DEFRA, 2007a), so it is clear that while the instruments of policy reform may now be in place, their work is still far from completed. The tax is now nearly six times its original rate. A small number of pilot schemes have been permitted to explore how such charging might work, but no LA has yet established such a pilot because of extensive negative press coverage of the idea. This was triggered by the installation by some LAs of microchip technologies for weighing waste in LA-required waste bins, before plans for variable charging had been discussed in the communities concerned.