Preventing ‘backdoor’ charging at household waste recycling centres
We are inviting views on how household waste recycling centres can stay open without councils charging residents for disposal.
This discussion paper invites views on how household waste recycling centres at risk of closure can stay open, without local authorities resorting to charging their residents to dispose of household waste and recycling.
Long-standing legislation from the Civic Amenities Act 1967 to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has required local authorities to provide free-to-use household waste recycling centres (‘civic amenity sites’; ‘tips’; or ‘dumps’) for their residents to dispose of household rubbish and recycling. The government’s 2011 waste review upheld this principle.
The government is aware that some local authorities have introduced, or plan to introduce, a charge to anybody accessing certain household waste recycling centres to dispose of household waste and/or household recycling.
The government is also concerned these charges will inconvenience residents; increase fly-tipping and back-yard burning; and make recycling harder for people rather than its stated objective of making it easier. The government believes that residents should continue to have free access to household waste recycling centres in their local authority area.