Somerset residents won’t have to pay to dispose of DIY waste at recycling centres

Somerset residents may soon no longer have to pay to dispose of their DIY waste at recycling centres.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) held a consultation in mid-2022 over the possible abolition of charges for disposing of plasterboard, bricks, tiles and similar items. The government announced on Sunday (June 18) that these charges should be abolished following “overwhelming public support”, arguing that it would help ongoing efforts to combat fly-tipping.

Somerset Council – which operates the county’s 16 household waste recycling centres with its contractor Biffa – said it was too early to tell whether charges for other items would have to rise as a result. Charges on residents disposing of household rubbish at household waste centres were scrapped in 2015; however, around a third of UK councils still charge for certain types of DIY waste, using rules designed for commercial waste such as construction material.

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The changes could save residents up to £10 per individual item (such as a sheet of plasterboard or a bath unit). Rebecca Pow MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for environmental quality and resilience, said the change would discourage fly-tipping and make it easier for people to improve their homes.

Ms Pow – who has represented the Taunton Deane constituency since 2015 – 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 among local authorities on tackling the issue.”

Jacob Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services Association, added: “We welcome any measures that make it easier for householders to dispose of waste correctly and responsibly at their local recycling centre, which in turn reduces the chance of it falling into the hands of criminals or being fly-tipped.

“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.

“These reforms will protect the local environment by encouraging responsible waste disposal, whilst keeping down the cost of living for households.” The change in policy has also been welcomed by the Country Land and Business Association (CLBA), which argued this was make a big difference to fly-tipping levels in rural areas.

South west regional director Ann Maidment said: “The UK government is now getting serious about fly-tipping, and we warmly welcome this announcement. Fundamentally, making it cheaper and easier for people to get rid of their waste means they will be less likely to dump it illegally.

“We continue to work with government to find new ways of reducing fly-tipping, which continues to not only act as a blight on our landscape, but as a serious threat to nature and our members’ businesses.” Somerset Council currently operates 16 household waste recycling centres across the county – all of which charge for the disposal of DIY waste.

The county’s recycling centres are in the following locations:

• Saltlands Avenue, Bridgwater (near the school transport depot)
• Dimmer Lane, Castle Cary
• Beeching Close, Chard (near the new enterprise centre)
• Wedmore Road, Cheddar (near the current terminus of the Strawberry Line)
• Blacknell Lane, Crewkerne (near phase one of the Crewkerne key site)
• Brushford Road, Dulverton
• Manor Furlong, Frome (near the Keyford Meadows development site)
• Bennett Road, Highbridge
• Mart Road, Minehead
• Bancombe Road, Somerton
• Farm Lane, Street (near Clarks Village)
• Venture Way, Taunton
• Higher Poole, Wellington
• Dulcote Hill, nr Wells
• Roughmoor, Williton
• Artillery Road, Yeovil

Fees and charges for certain items rose by up to 11 per cent in early-April to take account of high inflation, following a decision by the Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) in September 2022. Cartons and TetraPak packaging is no longer being accepted at any Somerset recycling centres as of June 12, following a sharp increase in these items being collected at the kerbside as part of the Recycle More initiative.

Somerset Council said it was too early to see whether Defra’s latest reforms would lead to charges for other items having to rise again, in order to balance the books.

A spokesman said: “It’s too early to say what impact this will have. We await the final details from the government and will be working through the implications.”