Proposed hikes in waste and recycling charges for Bristol residents are a “charter for fly-tippers”, opposition councillors warn. Conservatives and Greens fear many people will simply refuse to pay the higher fees – which include a rise of more than half for the cost of garden waste collections and new payments to replace lost or damaged wheelie bins and recycling containers – and will dump rubbish illegally.
The Labour administration says the increases are merely ideas at the moment to ensure the service helps to reduce Bristol City Council’s £20.3million budget gap and while galloping prices are hitting the waste industry particularly hard. Garden bin collections are set to go up from £32 to £50 a year, with discounts for direct debit and those on benefits.
Households who sign up to this can still get their Christmas tree collected for free but there will be a new £5 fee for non-subscribers to cover some of the £20,000 it costs the authority. Every replacement black bin and garden waste bin would cost £28 and delivery of recycling containers £2.50, while Environment Agency (EA) regulations that make it more expensive to dispose of upholstered furniture are behind a £25 bill to collect a sofa or £50 for a three-piece suite.
Read more: Bristol City Council garden waste charges to rise by more than half
Charges would be introduced for domestic DIY waste, such as soil, rubble, plasterboard and asbestos, at recycling centres. Tory group leader and Henbury & Brentry ward Cllr Mark Weston told a budget scrutiny meeting: “You don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that if we’re going to start charging people even more for bulky waste collection, for DIY waste, for recycling box waste, we are actually going to create more fly-tipping.
“The list of those charges just looks like a fly-tipping charter and that is what it’s going to be. It’s the law of false economics.
"We may recoup a little bit of money but we will spend far more of it cleaning up the mess that has then been caused. This just makes no sense.”
He said he watched as a Bristol Waste bin man threw his recycling box and it cracked on the pavement. "If we want to save money, possibly tell the waste company not to create its next generation of recycling itself by destroying the plastic boxes,” he said.
Stoke Bishop ward Conservative Cllr John Goulandris said: “I’m passionate about recycling, I will pay the delivery charge, but I suspect some people might be very aggrieved at that delivery charge if the box has been broken by the Bristol Waste operatives.” Labour cabinet member for climate, ecology, waste and energy Cllr Kye Dudd replied: “That’s a fair point. I have been lobbied on that issue and I am listening.
“It costs us around £450,000 a year to deliver all those recycling containers, so this proposal looks to try to recoup at least £100,000.” A council officer said: “If there is damage then we would provide it for free.
“But the size of the container replacement cost is significant.” Bishopston & Ashley Down ward Green Cllr Emma Edwards said: “I have a concern that if you start charging people for Christmas tree recycling then people will avoid that cost and fly-tip or quite likely do bonfires which isn’t environmentally a good idea.”
Cllr Dudd said: “If you increase the amount we charge for things like bulky waste collections or bins, there is always a risk that might have an impact on recycling or fly-tipping. It’s something we need to monitor carefully and we have the ability to reassess if we do see challenges with that, but this is being driven by the financial situation so we have had to consider things we wouldn’t ordinarily want to consider.”
Cllr Dudd told the meeting on Thursday, February 2, that all the proposed charges were similar to other core city or neighbouring authorities, although South Gloucestershire Council has decided to scrap similar increases for garden waste collections. He said the proposed new waste charges were separate from the council’s budget, which will be voted on at full council on February 21, as they would be set out in Bristol Waste’s business plan, which is due out soon and will go through scrutiny and cabinet in March, which gave more time to rethink them.
Council chief executive Stephen Peacock said: “We have a wholly owned company and a business plan that comes later. The proposals here have come as a result of conversations with the company.
“But what we’re not near to is the operational implementation of them, so what this is here today is show how the service might be able to deliver its part of a balanced budget and also to be really transparent about what might be those sorts of choices we have to make – they’re not fully worked up.”
Read next:
Garden waste collection fees price hike plans scrapped by South Gloucestershire Council
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