Selaine Saxby MP has supported news that householders will soon no longer have to pay for the disposal of domestic DIY waste at Devon’s recycling centres.
Following overwhelming public support, the Government will abolish the fees which local authorities charge for disposing of DIY waste at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs). This will support householders to dispose of their waste in a responsible manner and encourage recycling.
Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon said:
“These welcome changes will mean councils treat DIY waste the same as household waste and could save households up to £10 for each individual item of DIY waste. I think the people of North Devon want to recycle and dispose of waste properly and it is right that we make it as easy and affordable as possible.
People who make the choice to improve their home and improve their lives should quite simply not be charged to properly dispose of their waste. This is a long overdue change to support households, but also to reduce fly tipping”
These changes complement wider action being taken to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime which is estimated to cost the economy £924m per year in England. Earlier this year the government announced grants totalling £775,000 to help councils roll out a range of projects to crack down on fly-tipping. The government have consulted on reforming the waste carrier, broker, dealer regime and on introducing mandatory digital waste tracking, and 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.
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.”
NFU Vice President David Exwood said:
“The NFU has long called for action to make it easier for the public to recycle rubbish, so we very much welcome this announcement which will hopefully encourage anyone who has DIY waste to dispose of it easily at a recycling centre and reduce the chances of it being fly-tipped illegally.
“Waste crime and fly-tipping continues to plague the lives of so many of us living and working in the countryside, and increasingly we’re seeing industrial-scale amounts of rubbish, such as builder’s rubble and hazardous materials.
“This is affecting farmers’ efforts to produce food and care for the environment but is also taking a huge toll emotionally and financially.”
The Government clarified the law in 2015 that local taxpayers should not be charged for disposing of household waste at civic amenity sites – scrapping backdoor “tip taxes”. It has also repeatedly stated that councils should not be charging for such DIY household waste disposal either.
These additional changes will come into force later this year and clarify that DIY household waste should be treated the same as household waste.
These reforms will protect the local environment by encouraging responsible waste disposal, whilst keeping down the cost of living for households.
