The charges applied by waste management companies are matters for those companies and their customers, subject to compliance with all applicable environmental and other relevant legislation, including contract and consumer legislation.
In the interest of encouraging further waste prevention and recycling, the Government has decided that flat-rate fees for kerbside household waste collection will be phased out over the period autumn 2017 to autumn 2018 as customers contracts come up for renewal, when the necessary regulatory steps are in place.
As has been long-standing practice, a collection service provider may amend a pricing structure or a contract , as long as the amendments are in accordance with all relevant legislation, including contract and consumer legislation. It is worth noting that the measure to phase out flat fees is not ‘new’ for the more than half of kerbside household waste customers who are already on an incentivised pricing plan, i.e., a plan which contains a per lift or weight related fee. There are no plans to introduce maximum charges or minimum charges as proposed in 2016. However, the Government is putting in place a price watchdog group to carefully monitor the situation in the months ahead.
