# Paying for recycling



## acctutor (Oct 3, 2009)

Hi all,

Our Cornwall Council has started charging at the recycling centre to dispose of hardcore, soil or plasterboard.

I can understand plasterboard, but as I understand it, firms will pay to collect soil, which can be sifted, cleaned and sold as top soil, and similarly hardcore can be sold to be regraded and then sold. Funnily enough they do not charge for metal, which is a good source of profit for the local scrappy.

Before I start to inquire about this, can anyone around the country let me know if your council charges for any recycling, as I feel the need to have words with someone.

I realise that councils have to find as many sources of money to pay for the ridiculous salaries of the managers, our Council boss earns more then Cameron, and the 100+ Councillors with all their expenses (how come we need more councillors to run Cornwall than the USA needs to run the Senate?). 

But this to me seems a bit money grabbing?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Bill & Patsy


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## philoaks (Sep 2, 2008)

No charges made by Bridgend County BC or the Vale of Glamorgan Council in South Wales.

Seems a very narrow minded policy to me as it will ultimately lead to increased fly tipping (which in the long term will probably cost them more than the revenue from the "official" tipping charges).


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## Brock (Jun 14, 2005)

Our Council charges for a Garden Waste bin but doesn't allow you to put in soil. 

Soil and hardcore yes can be recycled but as in many cases of recycling, the cost is too high for the benefits gained. It has to be done on a major scale. Hence it usually falls under 'Trade Waste' and you still have to pay to have it taken away!

Scrap metal is valuable and so is worth recycling. Boatloads depart from Liverpool Docks every week.

Agree with you and the ridiculous salaries of ineffective managers in Local Government.


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## Devonboy (Nov 19, 2009)

Devon County Council has been charging for the last couple of years & strangely enough flytipping has increased dramatically over the same period.

Chargeable Waste
*Price**(minimum charge)*
*Soil and Rubble:* Includes bricks, blocks, slates, tiles, rubble, paving slabs, concrete, gravel, tarmac, stones, soil, sand, hardcore and sanitary ware (ceramic toilets, sinks, pedestals etc).*£2.00* per bag
*Tyres:* Commercial and agricultural vehicle tyres will not be accepted. No charge for bicycle tyres.*£3.50* per tyre
*Plasterboard:* Includes plaster and gypsum related products *(facility not available at all sites)*. **Please see below*
*Plastic Window:* With or without glass. Single pane window only (double charge for multiple pane plastic windows).*£3.50* each
*Plastic Door or Door Frame:* With or without glass. Single door or door frame only (double charge for double door or door + frame combined).*£3.50* each
*Bath or Shower Tray (plastic, fibreglass or composite):* Single bath or shower tray only.*£3.50* each
*Shower Screen:* Plastic or glass shower screen/enclosure.*£3.50 *each
*Insulation Materials:* 1 sheet or 1 bag.*£3.50* per sheet/bag
*Roofing Felt**£3.50* per bag/roll
*Plastic Pipes/Guttering/Facia etc.:* Up to 5 lengths/pieces (approximately 2 metres per length or part there of).*£3.50* for up to 5 lengths/pieces
*Asbestos: Bonded Asbestos only (facility not available at all sites)*.*£9.50* per sheet/bag*

Plasterboard is *£3.50 per bag* at: *Exmouth, Honiton, Sidmouth, Exeter, Tiverton, Crediton, Ilfracombe, Barnstaple, Kingsbridge, Newton Abbot, Holsworthy, Bideford, Okehampton and Tavistock*. Plasterboard is *£4.60 per bag* at: *Great Torrington*. *No facilities* at:* Ivybridge, Totnes or South Molton*.


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## 113016 (Jun 5, 2008)

Our council will not accept soil, so when i dug out my ground weeds with soil, i fly tipped it on a country verge. No charge for anything, but rubble limited to 2 bags


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

Hi Bill

I recently turned up at United Downs with a trailer full of rubble and they wanted £90!!

Quickly discovered T H Douce at Scorrier who charged me £12 for 2 loads.

http://www.thdouce.com/how-to-find-us

Just turn up.

Kev


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## acctutor (Oct 3, 2009)

Many thanks for all the replies, we are having our kitchen improved and I have a load of wall tiles and plasterboard to dispose of, thank goodness I am not in Devon, they will soon be charging you to breath!!!!!.

Kev, thanks for the heads up re TH Douce, I can see me going over there in the near future. We are in Penryn, how far away are you?

All the best

Regards

Bill & Patsy


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I suppose we're used it being part of the council tax, but I expect we'll see more of this as other councils take notice, to be honest I'd just pay it, it's not a fortune is it, and it's not like we'll be doing it a lot.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

I have 3 green bins for garden waste, 1 purple for all ( tin, plastic,glass) but cardboard is kept separate , 1 black bin for household rubbish No extra charges for collection or taken to the tip.


Telford and Wrekin


tony


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

> =acctutor;
> 
> Kev, thanks for the heads up re TH Douce, I can see me going over there in the near future. We are in Penryn, how far away are you?
> 
> ...


We are in Piece up behind Carn Brea, behind the field opposite the Countryman.

Kev

ps. have sent you a pm


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## Sevenup (Jun 29, 2015)

Argyll and Bute have bins for bottles, cans and paper (including cardboard), general rubbish and food waste (including cooked food). No pick up of garden waste unless you pay but the local council run waste station will take anything you can throw at it. The biggest problem is access to landfill. Some counties pay to use landfill in another county because there are no facilities within their own borders. With landfill tax rising steeply councils are keen to pass on as much of the costs as possible to those that produce the waste. Not sure how it fits with their recycling objectives but the current government doesn't seem to have any real environmental commitment.


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## Bobmarley3 (Oct 12, 2011)

North Yorkshire has been doing it for a year. Fly tipping locally has rocketed (what a surprise - not).

Examples of idiocy - take in glass within a window frame - no charge. Take in glass broken - you pay. Take in turf that you have skimmed from the top of a lawn prior to digging - you pay. Take in the soil/grass which forms the edge of a border - free.

And to make it worse NYCC will only accept cards - cash is no longer king. No plastic card then no leave the rubbish at teh HWRC - hence the fly tipping increase.


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## waspes (Feb 11, 2008)

The Vale of Glamorgan tip is free if you take it in a car BUT if you have a trailer or a van or a pickup then it will cost you £15.00 for the Council to send you a permit. These idiots then moan when people go and fly tip :serious:


Peter.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Recycling costs money. It only works with everyday waste when it's well separated and delivered to the recycling plant, the final handler, in bulk.

If you had 100,000 tons of some fairly uniform material and could deliver it in bulk, having found an approved recycler with the right equipment close enough to make transporting it worthwhile, you might even make it pay. Providing it really was recyclable and uncontaminated to begin with. 

If you take a small quantity along in a bag you are probably delivering it to a collection centre. It will need manual handling, checking and final delivery to the reprocessor. That can't be done without cost. Even the bag it's in contaminates it.

Recycling domestic waste is an economically unattractive proposition, though a nice aspiration. It has appeal but it's a long way from the current reality.It may pay in the future, who knows, but till then we will have to be willing to pay someone to do it for us if we want it. And we really should want it because all the resources we have are finite.

The problem is that it's impossible to know whether we are being expected to pay the real cost of having our trash recycled or whether we're really being conned into paying too much by councils and others who see it as an undetectable method of collecting another tax or making a profit from our desire to do the right thing.


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## Tezmcd (Aug 3, 2009)

its all about the carbons .................. cant see why most people don't understand this


WE MUST SAVE CARBONS!


Carbons are magical things that only scientists understand - but let please all do what we can to save them 
(lets start by not driving large motorhomes for starters)


..............call me a sceptic (I will agree with you)


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## Sevenup (Jun 29, 2015)

Tezmcd said:


> its all about the carbons .................. cant see why most people don't understand this
> 
> WE MUST SAVE CARBONS!
> 
> ...


In Scotland and, probably, Wales supermarkets no longer give free bags at checkout unless you pay the 5p tax. The result is a significant reduction in waste and rubbish and all the carbons saved too.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

We still get the free carrier bags, but we recycle them as bin liners..


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

We don't pay anything for our bins

We compost all garden,kitchen waste ourselves, and reuse it on the gardens, greenhouse etc

We could have a bin for garden waste, and one for cooked food waste but don't require them

If we were disposing of windows bricks etc we would hire a skip

So I guess we would be paying for it

Aldra


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Tezmcd said:


> .......... WE MUST SAVE CARBONS!
> 
> .........


We don't seem to have a carbon saving bin. Maybe our local council haven't considered it.


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## greygit (Apr 15, 2007)

*When we did various work on the house we had a lot of hardcore to get rid of so we asked around and found a bloke not too far away that needed hardcore to extend his drive and patio, problem solved for both of us. *


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