HippoBags ..

[Tim Watts]

I do not think roll up foam mattresses count.

The surcharge to enable "normal" mattresses to be chopped up and various components recycled.

[Tim Watts]

Nope. They're all run "by a private company" IME, subcontracted by the council as a council tax funded service.

I'll repeat - I did not *think* the council could legally charge for such a service. The only one they have found a loophole for is garden waste (£25/year optional service in Rother DC from July 2014).

But garden clippings are not a hazard if left in the garden.

[charles]

Our refuse/recycling stuff is still collected by our local borough council. What is privately run are the "waste transfer sites", aka dumps, where you take your rubbish.

How cheap - it's £30 per wheelie bin here.

agreed, but they take up space.

[Tim Watts]

That's true but "hazard" is (at least historically) the deciding factor.

Councils were obliged to offer free (at the point of use) collection to avoid disease, rats and other problems which affect not just the person, but their neighbours too.

This is why they cannot add an additional fee for collecting normal household waste. I rather thought the tips were on the same basis but I could be wrong. Good question for ulm?

[Andy Burns]

per bin-full, or for having the bin per year?

[Tim Watts]

Bin for the year. Not sure for our £25 if we will get weekly or fortnightly collections - they are still working out the rounds based on uptake.

[Adam Funk]

Disguising a house radiator as a car radiator ... ingenious!

[Adam Funk]

I understand the disposal issues with fridges --- but do they incinerate mattresses to medical waste standards because of bedbugs?

[Robin]

I think we may be addressing different points.

May I try again to get across the - possibly trivial - point I was trying to make? I take it as self-evident that a council is not obliged to provide a recycling service at the end of every street. So a council is free to close a "tip" (up to a point - see below). When they do so there is no barrier to a private operator taking over the site and offering the same or similar service for a charge; or doing similarly at a new site. That's all I meant.

As for what council's can do, I agree entirely they cannot charge for collecting household waste. That's a statutory duty. They are also under a statutory duty to provide free tips in their areas which are "reasonably accessible" (whatever that means). But that too is only for "household waste". There are regulations which prescribe some things to be household waste. And some as not (the classic example being a dead pet). They also provide explicitily for charges for some things (eg garden waste). But the upshot AIUI is that they can refuse to take furniture, kitchen units, bathroom suites, rubble, fridges etc etc or charge for doing so. And I think more and more are doing so, even if brought in by residents in cars.

[Brian Gaff]

We have a road out at the back of our house. it has no name, but does have streetlights. Two things worry me about a skip. What does one need to do to be legal in this kind of environment, as it cannot be in the property, and how does one stop the inevitable overnight secret skip fillers who seem to be always shoving stuff in other peoples skips? Can you get them with locking covers or something? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

What about smaller electronic things, but lots of them? Also a sink unit and old enamelled sink. What about asbestos cement, ie garage door materials. Brian

[charles]

for having the bin and getting emptied once a fortnight. The charge is per year.

[charles]

but, of course, there has been a mammoth increase in fly-tipping since building contractors started getting charged for waste disposal.

[Jabba]

Brian Gaff scribbled...

They do make skips with lids, I've seen them outside workshops.

In London they try to have a skip delivered, filled and removed on the same day. I've heard of overnight skips being found almost empty the next morning.

The skip companies here have to get council permission to leave skips outside a property and obviously have to provide lighting for them.

[Davey]

Ah. Being a petrolhead, 'radiator' usually means one of those aluminium thingies to me, rather than a heavy iron thing from the house.

[Davey]

They just fit in a box and go to the WEEE place.

[Davey]

That is surely a good thing?

[charles]

all the car radiators I've ever seen are made of copper. and modern domestic ones are steel.

[Davey]

There are plenty of aluminium ones out there, and still being made for industrial machinery. As for modern cars, I can't say, they are not my thing.

[Andy Burns]

I think it's similar here for a garden bin (I don't have one, the tip is close enough) I just wondered why you thought £30 different enough from £25 to mention.