Previously, commercial waste was charged at 10 per tonne for landfilling and local authorities were tipping for free. From July 1, charges for commercial waste will be increased to 50 per tonne, with plans for further raises to 75 on December 1, 2003 and 100 on April 1, 2004.
The government is introducing a similar charge for local authorities of 10 per tonne, which will be passed onto householders. This is much lower than for commercial waste because the charge for domestic waste has a 90% subsidy by the government.
Simon Harrison, waste operations manager at the Isle of Man government, said: “The overall intention is to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Leading up to this charge there has been a big push for recycling.”
The island has a population of 76,000 split into 24 local authorities. Mr Harrison explained: “The structure is different to the mainland. The local authorities set a rate each year for the public and businesses, which includes a waste charge.”
The island currently does not have kerbside recycling and relies on the numerous bring sites. Mr Harrison said: “Some local authorities are introducing bin weighing as part of the charging scheme and are talking about introducing green waste and other collections. We are also looking at changing the collection infrastructure. We have 24 local authorities with 39 bin wagons for somewhere with a similar population to Preston. We may move the collections to a more central function.”
He admitted that, initially, public opinion was not very positive: “There has been a mixed reaction to the charge. It was initially negative, especially householders but they realised the actual charge they are being levied is only against one to one and a half tonnes per year, so they are looking at 10 to 15 per year.”
Recycling
Mr Harrison added: “The commercial sector is finding it a bit harder to swallow, but they realise that at the moment they are not being charged enough. It is really promoting minimisation and recycling.”
The energy from waste facility, operated by SITA, is due to be commissioned on the Island in October 2003 and the official operational handover will be in April 2004.
SITA UK's wholly owned subsidiary, SITA Waste Isle of Man, has a contract with the Isle of Man government to build and operate an Energy from Waste facility on the island. The 25 year contract comes from the company's merger with United Waste in 2001. Work began on the plant in January 2002, which when finally operational will take up to 60,000 tonnes of waste.
A spokesperson for SITA said that the company came into the project after the planning permission had been granted. They said: “The hard bit had been primarily done by United Waste. They worked exceedingly hard to get the public to appreciate the need for the facility.”
Subscribe for free