There has been widespread coverage in the last couple of days in publications including the Sunday Express, The Times, iNews, letsrecycle.com, Circular and BristolLive of our abolition of charges to dispose of DIY waste at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).
The announcement made by environment Minister Rebecca Pow on Sunday (18 June) will help householders to dispose of their waste in a responsible manner and encourage recycling.
Around a third of local authorities still charge for household DIY waste. The changes outlined yesterday will mean councils treat DIY waste the same as household waste and could save people up to £10 for an individual item – for example, a sheet of plasterboard.
This will make it much easier and cheaper for people making home improvements to get rid of their waste – and may reduce the temptation to use waste cowboys who fly-tip rubbish.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:
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.
This not only supports our wider work to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime, but we are helping home improvers across the nation make their dream projects a reality.
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 on tackling the issue among local authorities.
4 comments
Comment by D Johnson posted on
How about stopping them from charging for collection of large domestic items. A bed gets counted as 3 items being base mattress and headboard.
East Devon District Council charges £37 to collect one.
Comment by Richard Ogden posted on
Pleased that common sense has prevailed.
Comment by Christina Aitken posted on
Good idea as I think this will most definitely stop waste just being dumped and save the country more money, therefore balancing the books?
Comment by John Galvin posted on
Good if it means I can take a single brick or some tiles to my local HWRC. Of course builders will continue masquerade as householders to avoid charges or just refuse to remove construction waste on the basis the householder can falsely dispose of it as DIY waste, without charge