\n Last month, residents challenged the cost of recycling DIY waste in Reading and Bracknell by signing a petition, but the council is unmoved.\n<\/p>\n
\n Up to 100 litres of rubble, soil, plasterboard or asbestos or one big object like a bath no larger than 2m x 75cm x70cm in size can be disposed of by residents at household waste recycling points in Reading and Bracknell.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than a bathtub-full of DIY waste brought in during a single visit incurs charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Visitors can currently bring rubble on up to three occasions in four weeks, but on the fourth occasion, there is also a charge.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bracknell resident Dan Carter organised a petition in December to Bracknell Forest council, believing that council tax should fund waste and recycling services.\n<\/p>\n
\n However the council says that charges were introduced to pay for the costs of bulky recycling and shift the costs of the disposal away from council tax payers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Carter, who does not support council charges for disposing of DIY waste, asked what the primary rationale was, whether the charges had been made for financial or other reasons.\n<\/p>\n
\n His position is supported by Conservative Leader Cllr Gareth Barnard.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cllr Barnard said:\u00a0 \u201cIntroducing the charges is potentially a false economy: we know we\u2019ve got a problem with fly tipping problem in Bracknell Forest.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe most important thing is to remind everyone that if you get someone to taking your rubble and rubbish away \u2013 make sure they have a licence to do it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf someone you\u2019ve hired dumps your rubbish, and they\u2019re not licenced, then you\u2019re responsible for it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Cllr Helen Purnell, now the acting council leader replied:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWithout charges, the additional cost of disposing of this heavier material would fall on all council taxpayers, rather than only those generating the waste.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe experienced a reduction in certain waste tonnages when charges were first introduced in 2016, followed by a slight increase when the free allowance was later brought in.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe Recycling Centre service is intended for small amounts of DIY waste, and for larger quantities we advise residents to consider using a commercial waste removal service or hiring a skip.\n<\/p>\n
\n A report about the relationship between fly-tipping rates and charges for recycling was published recently by the Waste and Resources Action Programme.\n<\/p>\n
\n The report is understood to have included analysis of Re3\u2019s own experience following the introduction of charges in 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cllr Purnell said:\u00a0 \u201cWe continue to monitor this locally, but the report concluded that it is \u201cunlikely that there is an association\u201d between charging at recycling centres and fly\u2011tipping.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is also important to note that most fly\u2011tipping is carried out by criminal groups rather than by Borough residents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, residents challenged the cost of recycling DIY waste in Reading and Bracknell by signing a petition,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}