Crabble Corn Mill's Harry Reid asks......

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26 November 2007

....I would like to ask a question...

Why do local businesses (specially a small business) have to pay for their waste to be collected when they pay so much in local business tax.

Also

If recycling is the now the way to go why are we making it harder for the local business by making them pay to recycle their recyclable waste such as cardboard, paper, tins and bottles.One small company has just been fined £300 I think for putting their cardboard in a Council waste cardboard recyle bin, the mind boggles.

I am not a business man and never have been, so I can not understand why the Council charge the business twice they pay high local business tax then pay for a waste service why? I know it costs Crabble Corn Mill which is a charity several hundred ponds to get rid of their waste through a private waste Company because the Council want to charge so much more.

Just like to put it on the comments page.

Thx H

Guest 640 wrote:
Harry that seems a shame to be double clobbered especially as you are a charity up there at The Mill. I dont know much about this subject myself, but perhaps because of these exhorbitant council charges, that eyesore pest of fly-tipping exists. So the council in a way contribute to their own misery.
Guest 667 wrote:
The Mill does not actually pay Business/Council tax as they are zero rated, but it does pay for its private waste collection as the Council will not collect it. Much worse however is that the Council recycle vehicle will not collect the Mills Bottles, Tins, cardboard etc, as they say we have to pay for that service.

I do find it strange that Companies want to go down the recycles road but are put off due to having to pay to do so. Then at the weekend I picked up that this small business had been fined £300 because they had put their cardboard in a Council recycle unit, which is beyond belief.

Dover is not the only Council, I work in another town and right next door to the Council Recycle yard. We collect all the recycle waste but we can not walk or drive the 100yds into the recycle unit to get rid of it, Oh no we have to pay to get rid of it.

All I ask is why do Councils make the local business that pays such high Business Tax pay again to get rid of their waste? Maybe some councillors could give me a justifiable reason.
Barry Williams, Dover wrote:
Harry.

First of all the Business Rate is not a 'local tax' in the true sense. It is collected by the Council but is paid direct to central government and then DDC get a small portion of it paid back. The levels of this tax too are set by Government.

The so called 'free' refuse collection is indeed for domestic waste only, not business waste and it has always been so.

To introduce a 'free' business waste collection would be costly, (if the Council have the power to do it that is...) The result would be increased domestic Council tax which would be capped and likley cut services so there is no way it can happen anyway.
Guest 667 wrote:

Thanks for that Barry which to some extent I can understand.

Surely the Council should be trying to make it easier for the local business to recycle their waste though? As for a £300 on a small business by a Council for them actually putting their cardboard in a Council Recycle unit, well is that not going over the top?

At the end of the day the consumer pays, the business has to cover their costs by passing it on, so the householder pays in the end anyway. The overhead costs get recycled even if their waste does not.
Barry Williams, Dover wrote:
I agree Harry.

Personally they are taking the easier way out with re-cycling, placing the onus on the householder but it would be far more effective at a corporate level.

For example, first by simply cutting down on the amount of packaging on products in supermarkets, have you bought some replacement toothbrush heads lately? trying to get at them is like trying to break into Fort Knox, all stiff thick plastic. Also, instead of stopping plastic carrier bags, how about biodegradable bags instead?

I am sure everybody can come up with ideas to improve recylcling at a corporate level.
Guest 667 wrote:
Barry I could not agree with you more, it is time action was taken to reduce the waste from packaging. Wait for Christmas when the children try to open their toys, which are attached to cardboard by wire, which are then placed inside another cardboard box, which then has film all round it and then we all wrap it in Christmas paper.

I know about the toothbrush, I was in a hotel in Leeds two weeks ago and could not get my new toothbrush out of the packet; I had to go to reception to get them to cut it out for me.

Mind you I still find it daft that I could almost throw the depots recyclable goods from my office window into a Council Recycle Yard (not Dover). However I am not allowed to do so because we are a business, I have to wait for a lorry to collect it which adds to the pollution as do several other businesses on the industrial estate.

It's a great world but not sure out grandchildren will appreciate what we leave them.