County councillors have backed plans to charge for non-household waste at the Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRC), including those at Margate and Richborough.
KCC operates 18 HWRCs, providing facilities for the recycling and disposal of more than 30 different types of waste but is not obligated to accept non-household waste at its sites, such as soil, rubble, hardcore and plasterboard.
Each year Kent’s sites receive approximately 185,000 tonnes of waste and 3.5 million visits, at a cost of approximately £10 million to the taxpayer.
Its environmental performance sees more than 99% of Kent’s household waste now recycled, treated or recovered to produce energy, with less than 1% sent to landfill.
KCC already charges for car and motorbike tyres which are also categorised as non-household waste. It is now backing the charges of £4 per bag for soil, rubble and hardcore and £6 per bag of Plasterboard.
Agreement on the scheme was reached during a meeting of the Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee today (January 17). It comes following an eight-week consultation where almost 3,000 people responded.
The majority of comments made during the consultation were concerned about an increase in flytipping. KCC says other authorities that have implemented similar schemes have not reported an increase and there is no significant evidence to link charging for non-household waste at HWRCs with increased fly-tipping.
Following the meeting, a final decision will be made by KCC cabinet member Mike Whiting on whether to go ahead with the recommendation.
