People who take their waste from DIY projects to the local tip and have to pay to dispose it there won’t have to pay for it anymore, a Government minister has announced. Environment Minister Rebecca Pow has unilaterally abolished fees which some local authorities charge for disposing of that DIY waste at household recycling centres, and said the move could see people save themselves £10 or more.
Both Bristol and South Gloucestershire councils are among the third of local authorities in the country that have charges for individuals getting rid of their domestic DIY waste, but those councils will now have to foot the bill for dealing with it themselves - or at least the taxpayers will.
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Ms Pow said she has made the decision after a consultation, and the aim is to cut down the amount of fly-tipping that goes on when people just dump their DIY waste rather than have to pay for it.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to dispose of their waste properly and that’s why we are removing the financial burden on doing the right thing with DIY trash,” she said. “This not only supports our wider work to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime, but we are helping home improvers across the nations make their dream projects a reality,” she added.
“These changes complement wider action we are taking to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime, which is estimated to cost the economy £924m per year in England. Earlier this year we announced grants totalling £775,000 to help councils roll out a range of projects to crack down on fly-tipping. We have consulted on reforming the waste carrier, broker, dealer regime and on introducing mandatory digital waste tracking, and we are also developing a fly-tipping toolkit with National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to help spread best practice among local authorities on tackling the issue,” she added.
In Bristol, the city’s three household recycling centres have a range of charges for various kinds of DIY waste. Anyone wanting to take soil or rubble to the tip has to pay £2.90 per bag or item, and that includes bricks, blocks, slates, tiles, rubble, paving slabs, concrete, gravel, tarmac, stones, soil, sand, hardcore and ceramic sinks, baths and toilets.
Sheets of clean plasterboard cost £4.50 per sheet, and plasterboard with other things attached cost £9.50 to leave at the recycling centre. Asbestos is the most costly waste product to dispose of at the recycling centre, with the centres charging £11 per sheet or bag.
In South Gloucestershire, the charges are not quite so high and cover fewer items. Anyone taking rubble sacks full of hardcore or rubble can leave six bags per month for free, but after that there’s a charge of £2.50 per bag. Anyone arriving with a trailer full of hardcore or builder’s rubble is charge around £10 per metre, depending on how long their trailer is.
The executive director of the Environmental Services Association Jacob Hayler welcomed the move. “We welcome any measures that make it easier for householders to dispose of waste correctly and responsibly at their local Household Waste Recycling Centre, which in turn reduces the chance of it falling into the hands of criminals or being fly-tipped,” he said.
“Tackling the scourge of waste crime, from low-level fly-tipping to industrial-scale illegal operations, will require a multifaceted approach which is why we also support additional measures being introduced to help local authorities and to implement digital waste tracking alongside reform of the licensing regime for waste carriers, brokers and dealers,” he added.
Bristol Live approached Bristol City Council for its reaction to the announcement.
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