Residential Waste disposal at local dump - should I pay

usignuolo

I have just employed a local builder (sole trader) to replace my bathroom and there is some builders waste to dispose of. According to my council web site this is either free to local residents or possibly, as "commercial type" waste, it is chargeable at £55 tonne. (If you are a local resident and have proof of this it can be argued it is residential not business waste as I am not a business).

When we got to the dump in the builders van, the supervisor approached us and started shouting at us - presumably because we were in a van and had not yet gone on the weighbridge. I got out my identity proof and explained the situation and he continued to shout. He said it was trade waste in a van driven by a trader and it made no difference if it came from a private house, it was trade waste because I had employed the builder and brought it in his van. He said the council web site was wrong and then demanded £150 tonne to leave it.

What has anyone else found trying to dispose of waste created by a private building project? This must be a real incentive for fly tipping.

andrew-b

Using the builders van is the obvious fault in your disposal plan! Perhaps an unmarked van would have helped. Would be cheaper to hire a skip (about £110 for 4cubic yards, £190 for 6cubic yards from quotes i've had for one on the driveway). Taking it in multiple journeys in your own car would be the obvious solution. Although i had a big argument the other day over trying to get OH to take building rubble (now the home of woodlice and other bugs) in the car because she didn't want the creepy crawlies in it ending up in the car! So i'm trying to find an alternative route that's cheaper than a skip to keep the peace! Spending almost £200 to dispose of rubbish seems likes chucking money away to me. I'm considering whether to contact a rubbish clearance company who are registered for waste disposal as an alternative.

In the past at our local tip we've had to sign a book and give our address for disposing of things like old fridge freezer.

Andy

usignuolo

When I got home (not having offloaded the stuff), I looked up the council website. It said local residents waste was not chargeable if they could prove their identity and it was residential waste. It said the following types of waste were chargeable: any waste from or related to a business; waste not from your own home; waste being delivered on behalf of another person; builders waste you have not produced and any waste in a van from outside the borough.

Strictly speaking none of these apply to me but it could be argued, technically that the waste was being delivered by the builder, on behalf of another person (me) as he was driving, even though I was sitting in the van next to him and that it was in a van from outside the borough, (the builder is from outside the borough) but the job is not.

In any case if any of those apply, then you must pay trade waste rates which for rubble are specially discounted £55 tonne as the Council wishes to discourage landfill. The £150 tonne rate is only charged if you try to mix up different types of waste or put in contaminated waste which we had not done. The supervisor never gave us a chance to explain this.

So then I phoned up the council Customer Services department and they agreed with me and said the Customer Services Manager would phone the dump and would phone me back shortly. That was over an hour ago, and no news so I imagine there is now a big row going on inside the council.

Plan B is to hire a van one day next week and for my husband who happens to have some free time next week to take the stuff over to the dump himself. I suppose they will then tackle him if he is in a rental van. It all seems a pretty stupid way to carry on. Just encourages fly tipping if you ask me.

Doozergirl

You're right.

Man at dump has seen builder's van and put on his jobsworth's hat.

My H takes stuff to the neighbouring council's dump where you don't have to pass National Security level checks to chuck stuff away!

usignuolo

Sadly I cannot do that as all the dumps round here in neighbouring councils, demand proof of identity as a local resident before they let you dispose of anything more than a couple of bags of rubbish.

WestonDave

I read the original post and laughed - sorry! I can't think any dump would let you get away with turning up in a builders van with a load of building waste and not get charged. All business waste is chargeable - even taking away the used tea bags from the office attracts a fee on top of business rates! If you take it in your car you can pretend its DIY waste which is free as its domestic but anything generated by a tradesman is chargeable. Hiring a van probably won't work either as anything other than a car immediately attracts suspicion and I suspect your card is marked now! Our dump has a height barrier which even prevents some bigger 4x4's getting in - they have to ask permission to have it opened for them.

You need to be aware that to an extent your builder is pulling a fast one on you. He knows waste disposal is chargeable and that if he did it properly he would have to pass the charge on to you which might have cost him the job if someone else undercut him. If you have a fixed quote and it doesn't state that you have to dispose of the waste - tell him its his problem to get rid of it!

Basically the rule is - in a car = OK, in a van = gets charged unless you can sell icecream to eskimos!

usignuolo

In fairness to the builder he has been to that dump several times before in the last year and where it is waste from a local resident, he has been charged the £55 I mentioned above - which the council website says is the going rate. He is mystified as to why the supervisor took this tack and so am I.

And if you read further up, you can see that the Council's rules, as on their webiste, relate to waste from business in the borough or being brought in from outside, neither of which applies to me. It was Customer Services at the Town Hall who said I should not have to pay anything if I produced my id, I didn't prompt them on this, they volunteered it.

In fact I would be happy to pay the £55 tonne and am still wondering why the Supervisor insisted the rate was £150 which is for illegally sorted waste as he never checked our. I wonder if he is on some sort of financial incentive or target of the kind which plagues so much local government.

usignuolo

So if I took it in a large estate car in a couple of trips I would probably get away with it is that the answer?

dander

What kind of waste is it? You'd be amazed what people will come and take away for you if you advertise it on freecycle.

When I had my french windows fitted, I earned the undying love of my window company by asking if they could just leave me the old bricks for use in the garden. On my local freecycle there are always people wanting rubble and hardcore.

My local council consider a bathroom suite to be legitimate domestic waste and allow you to dispose of it at the tip, but you'd have to go in your own car. There's no way they'd let you in in a builders van!

usignuolo

Norfolk CC seem to have a good scheme:

DIY waste
Restricted to one item or 80-litre bag per week
Under current government legislation, DIY waste is not classed as household waste so by law we do not have to accept it at our household waste recycling centres. If we were to take all DIY waste council tax would have to go up to cover the costs of up to £1m a year. However, we do recognise that many people do carry out occasional DIY projects and therefore accept one 80-litre sack or item free of charge per week.
We recognise that some people may create more DIY waste than this so we offer an extra disposal service at our six main recycling centres as a cheaper alternative to hiring a skip. Please see the pay-as-you-throw section below for more details.
If you are planning a project that is going to create a lot of waste you need to think about how you are going to dispose of it. Please do your best to reduce or reuse as much as much as possible to avoid it going to landfill.
DIY waste includes items generated from building or renovation work that has been fixed, screwed down or cemented to a house or garden. It may include:
• Bathroom suites
• Central heating system components
• Ceramic tiles
• Doors and windows
• Fitted kitchens and wardrobes
• Garden sheds/fencing
• Garden soil/turf
• Paint cans (only if completely dried out)
• Plasterboard
• Roofing materials
• Rubble – bricks, concrete slabs
• Structural wood/MDF/hard/chip/plyboard including offcuts
If you are unsure, please call 0844 800 8004 or email [EMAIL="recycling@norfolk.gov.uk"][/email][EMAIL="recycling@norfolk.gov.uk"]recycling@norfolk.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
Please follow this link for an extensive list of what can and can’t be accepted, as well as alternative options.
Pay-as-you-throw
In addition to accepting one item or 80-litre sack of DIY waste per week free of charge, we are now also providing an extra service at our six main recycling centres (Caister, Hempton, Ketteringham, King’s Lynn, Mayton Wood, Thetford - click here for directions to these sites) for people who want to dispose of more than this in one go.
In the past, people could take their DIY waste to five commercial waste sites around the county and pay for disposal according to the size of the load. We are now offering exactly the same pay-as-you-throw service at our six main recycling centres so people can take advantage of the weekend opening hours and also benefit from consistent standards of customer service.
The charges are exactly the same and payment can be made by cheque and debit/credit card.
Pay-as-you-throw charges
Cars (including estates) - £15
MPV, four-wheel drive, people carrier - £20
Single-axle trailer - £30
Double-axle trailer - £40

usignuolo

Well it has become a bit clearer. The management at the dump raised the price for trade waste from £55 tonne to £150 in April without telling anyone else in the council (well I assume they got it agreed with Environmental Services) but not the computer staff to update the web site or Customer Services staff. And my next door neighbour tells me that it was in the local paper that there has been an epidemic of fly tipping locally. More unjoined government thinking.