Starting from 31 December 2023, you can get rid of some of your DIY waste free of charge due to changes in government regulations.
Kent County Council introduced charges for non-household waste in 2019.
But in June this year Environment Minister Rebecca Pow announced she was scrapping the charge for ‘DIY’ waste at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).
Shadow Cabinet member for Environment and Transport Cllr Barry Lewis said: “I was opposed to the introduction of these charges in 2019 because it was in reality a stealth tax which in turn led to more fly-tipping.”
Until 31 December, charges are still in place for:
- Ceramic bathroom and kitchen items – £5 per bag or item (bag up to the size of a standard black sack) limited to 5 bags (or equivalent) per day.
- Plasterboard – £7.50 per bag or sheet.
- Soil, sand and rubble – £5 per bag or item (bag up to the size of a standard black sack) limited to 5 bags (or equivalent) per day.
- Tyres – £3 per tyre, limited to 5 tyres a day.
Starting from December 31 the fees are abolished but there are limits on the frequency of tip visits and the amount people can get rid of.
The limit includes:
- no more than 4 visits over a 4-week period with DIY waste
- 1 large item up to 200cm x 75cm in size (vehicle restrictions still apply) or
- 2 x 50-litre bags (standard black bag).
Trade or hardcore waste is business waste.
Within the limit you can bring:
- breeze blocks, bricks, cement, concrete, drainpipes, flagstones, granite, marble, paving slabs
- ceramic bathroom and kitchen items (baths, bidets, cisterns, shower trays, sinks, toilet pans, wash basins)
- hardcore, rubble, gravel, rocks, sand, stones, soil
- We count one sheet of plasterboard as one black bag
- plastic kitchen units, non-ceramic sinks and baths and doors
- tiles (ceramic, clay, slate).
Charges and limits apply for anything that exceeds the set limit and for tyres there is no free disposal.
Prices will vary depending on your DIY items and whether you exceed the limits.
- £3 per tyre (car and motorbike tyres), limited to 5 tyres per day.
- £5 per item or bag for DIY waste over our limits.
- £7.50 per sheet or standard black bag for plasterboard over our limits.
I never knew going to the tip was so complicated. Back in the day when I did diy I just went to the tip.
“Back in the day”, in 2019, I just went to the tip…
Where have been hiding?
Common sense has returned,at last!
Much of the regular fly tipping in Thanet appears to be old mattresses and other domestic furniture that is beyond recycling via charity shops.
We have a large itinerant rental population in Thanet. Very often these people neither have access to vehicles or money to pay for removal.
It is high time that the collection of such items was substantially reduced or made free.
To remove for instance a double bed, frame, headboard and mattress Thanet District Council charges nearly 30 quid. ( https://www.thanet.gov.uk/online-services/bulky-waste-collection/ )
For many this is unaffordable especially if they have several household items that need removing.
It is the unseen pressures that are experienced by the poorest in our communities that do affect us all.
Does a Labour led Council need a Tory Government to help it see sense?
And please, no political whingeing about the Tories have cut funding. We all know that and many of us are having financial problems.
TDC has a track record of wasting public money in other ways!
BUT . . .
people without money or access to a vehicle manage to purchase a new double bed, frame, headboard and mattress and to have it delivered. They just do not factor in the cost or logistics of disposing of the old one.
Exactly,John.Clare is just trying to justify the Feckless activities of these anti social flytippers.
Clare makes a valid point. Also, While reading the article and following the link within, I note hire vans aren’t allowed at the recycling centre! The more barriers put in place, the more fly-tipping. Thankfully, where I live hire vans are allowed onsite (I recently moved house from a town into the countryside, within the same district council area and transported a full Enterprise, Transit Luton van to the local recycling centre, with no issues from the council chap onsite, he even gave me a hand to unload it into the different skips for recycling) and there are no vouchers required for panel vans here either. All councils have to make a choice, allow easy and free access to their recycling centre’s or allow for fly-tipping in their annual budgets, which will cost them more in clean up costs and damage to our natural environment.
There’s an element of society that will continue to flytip. Regardless of what’s services are now free to use . Mattresses seem a popular choice at the moment .
You’d think the people of Cliftonville & Margate would have the sense to call them “art” – that way, Dreamland can take them away to display there!
Mattresses fall under a raft of recycling/ disposal legislation and the nature of their construction makes them relatively difficult to deal with properly. The standard fee to take a mattress away and deal with it properly was around £30 ( this may have changed) it’s why so many get flytipped.
The councils service is a bargain and heavily subsidised by the council tax payer, but even still there are many who would rather just dump them.
Good quality mattresses are quite expensive to buy, especially the pocket sprung type.
You’re more likely to be sold a memory foam one, since these have more profit and nowhere near the longetivity.
Shame there’s no viable service that can wash and disinfect them, perhaps there could be a market for that?
Happy new year to all!