Changes to Pay As You Throw for DIY waste to be piloted – and new Trade Waste service to start – at selected recycling centres
A new way of charging for the Pay As You Throw (PAYT) service is set to be trialled at eight* of Norfolk County Council’s biggest recycling centres from Monday April 11.
PAYT has been running at Norfolk County Council’s biggest recycling centres for nearly eight years, as a service for residents to get rid of large amounts of DIY waste – over and above the concession for smaller amounts which can be taken to all sites for free, and which remains unchanged.
Under the new PAYT pricing trial, residents will pay for the amount and type of DIY waste they bring to these sites, instead of simply being charged according to the size of vehicle.
New PAYT charges will now be made for individual items of DIY rubbish, like fence panels, old kitchen or bathroom cabinets, and sanitary ware, for example. For larger loads of waste, different rates will be charged for different materials like wood and rubble. And there will also be new prices for different vehicle sizes.
The new system is intended to ensure that the amount residents pay for getting rid of their DIY waste will more accurately reflect the type and amount of waste they bring to the site.
It could also potentially be cheaper than before, as better prices will be charged when residents bring their waste sorted into different types of materials.
The new PAYT charges will be linked to prices in the commercial waste and recycling market which is where all DIY waste collected at recycling centres is sent. This will more accurately reflect the cost to the recycling centre service of dealing with the waste materials. It also means that PAYT charges will change from time to time. Guide prices will be displayed at each of the eight sites where PAYT operates – and on Norfolk County Council’s website.
Trade Waste service set to start
Seven of the County Council’s biggest recycling centres are also set to start running a paid-for service for small businesses and charities to use the sites for the first time.
The new Trade Waste service will be available at the sites Mondays to Fridays. It will help small businesses – like house clearance and cleaning companies, professional gardeners and home improvement traders, and charities – by providing an accessible facility where they can get rid of most of the same waste materials that are currently accepted at recycling centres – from green waste, to paper and cardboard, as well as construction and demolition waste.
For full information about the new service, including pricing information, and terms and conditions please visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/businesswaste
Speaking about the two new services, Toby Coke, Chairman of Norfolk County Council’s Environment, Development and Transport Committee said: “Councillors agreed to introduce these schemes in September last year, as part of a package of changes designed to make our recycling network more efficient.
“Our new PAYT pricing trial is designed to help make sure the DIY waste service covers its costs better. As a pilot scheme, we will be keeping it under review, but it is first and foremost intended to be fairer – both to the resident who wants to use the service, by charging them more accurately for the waste they bring, and to the wider council taxpaying community, by ensuring they aren’t subsidising the cost of other people’s home improvement projects.
“And with the added emphasis on encouraging people to sort their waste, we hope that the trial will increase the amount of recycling in the county by ensuring that as much recyclable waste as possible is sent off for reprocessing and re-use in good condition.
“The new Trade Waste service is also designed to support small
organisations in Norfolk who may find it difficult to access affordable ways of getting rid of the relatively small amount of waste they generate. We also hope it will help increase the amount of waste that is properly recycled and disposed of in Norfolk.
“Above all, the Trade Waste service will generate a new revenue stream that will help to support the overall running of the recycling service in the county. We are estimating that this will be modest – in the region of £10,000 in its first year – but we hope this will increase as more small traders use it.
“But however small this may be at the outset, it will be a vital source of income which continues to be desperately needed. I don’t need to remind my colleagues that the recycling centre network, which costs council taxpayers over £6m a year to run, continues to face considerable budget pressures in the future, particularly as some of the key money-saving changes which were originally planned, like the closure of Docking recycling centre, which would have saved £70,000 a year, were reversed in our budget settlement this year.”