MEMBERS of Fife Council's Environment, Protective Services and Community Safety Committee will this week consider a report on changes to commercial waste disposal at household waste recycling centres like Cartmore in Lochgelly.

The latest report provides the Committee with an update on the ongoing issues with commercial waste services at recycling centres, and seeks support on measures designed to fully recover the costs of disposing of trade waste in Fife.

In this area the Lochgelly depot deals with commercial waste as the Cowdenbeath centre at Cuddyhouse Road, only deals with household waste.

This follows on from the Committee of October 2017, where changes and policies to address the issue of non-payment from commercial users were backed.

There are three options that have been developed - full cost recovery; no commercial services at recycling centres; and ‘do nothing’.

The measures put forward to fully recover costs include: implementation of a cashless payment system designed to charge by calculating the following to produce a price: vehicle and/or trailer size, type of materials being disposed of and volume. This would enable customers to calculate the cost of their visit to a recycling centre in advance.

Commercial organisations can dispose of material at nine of Fife's household waste recycling centres. Seven Recycling Centres would operate a standard charge for accepting commercial waste - Dalgety Bay, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly, Methil, Pittenweem and St Andrews.

A reduced rate would be available for customers able to deliver waste direct to Lochhead, Dunfermline, and Lower Melville Wood, Ladybank, landfill sites, as this lowers the need for additional haulage.

Or a new charging system.

Any changes will not come into effect until January 1 2019, following a phased introduction to customers in late 2018. The current Recycling Ticket will be continued until December 2018.

Cllr Ross Vettraino, convener of the Committee, explained: "Accepting commercial waste at the Council’s household waste recycling centres is currently costing the council tax payers in Fife in excess of £1.5 million per annum.

"Because of the costs of doing so, neighbouring local authorities, including Edinburgh and Dundee, no longer accept commercial waste, but I want Fife Council to continue to assist local businesses. If the service is to be continued, however, full costs must be recovered.

“By failing to recover full costs, the Council is effectively subsidising some businesses and is distorting competition by enabling those businesses to lower their customer charges, compared with businesses that pay full commercial waste disposal costs.

“The charges that are being recommended to the Committee are actual costs, and do not include any element of profit. It should also be noted that there are over a dozen private waste disposal companies operating in Fife, so those who produce commercial waste can ‘shop around’.”

The centres are only one of the options that businesses have to dispose of their material, in line with their legal obligation. A number of other local companies are able to accept commercial waste.

A new Recycling Ticket became valid from April 1, and control measures introduced resulted in all applications being reviewed before a ticket was issued. This was to prevent ticket holders disposing of materials not covered by the ticket, including landfill waste, and to stop commercial operators disposing of waste at recycling centres without purchasing a ticket at all.

Since then, the number of Recycling Ticket holders has decreased by 14% - likely due to the more rigorous checks being carried out and some ticket holders using alternative providers. Also, the tonnage of waste being disposed at recycling centres has dropped by nearly 12%, showing that the controls are having an impact.

But more needs to be done to recover the costs of disposal and transport.

Issues identified in the report include some users parking outside the gates and walking onto the site to avoid the new height barriers. Also, to avoid commercial controls, some users may have moved to a car and trailer.

There are several changes proposed to the Access Policy to ensure user safety on site and enforce commercial controls. Recommendations:

No pedestrian access to sites from 1 January 2019.

Introduction of traffic control measures e.g. one way speed bumps at the exit to the site.

Prohibition of the emptying of wheeled bins at recycling centres.

Removal of permission to access Recycling Sites with double axle trailers, unless paid for as part of commercial waste disposal.

Cllr Ross Vettraino added: “I am also urging residents to help to tackle the blight of flytipping across Fife.

"We are aware that there is an issue of unlicensed businesses offering low cost services to dispose of rubbish only to fly tip it later. We want everyone to think about how they dispose of rubbish and to always ask see the waste carrier’s license if using a third party to collect waste.”