How much to collect large rubbish items?

Coincidently I arranged for a mattress to be uplifted today. I was a bit miffed to find the price had gone up from £15 to £25. W Scotland.

They seem to be able to charge anything they like.

We are very lucky. Our council collects large items free of charge, and I think there is no limit to the number of collections. (And yet people still dump old TVs, pianos (yes, really), mattresses, etc.)

In Horsham, West Sussex they charge £18 per collection.

I think it is perfectly reasonable for councils to charge for removing large waste items.
They themselves have to pay tax on stuff they send to landfill sites. It's only fair that the cost should be borne by the individual, rather than met by the council tax payers.

If paying to have stuff removed encourages people to put it on Freecycle or EBay instead, or to up-cycle say by re-covering an old sofa instead of buying a new one, then that's a good thing IMO.

It's £30 for three items here, with an additional £10 for each extra item. On the council's website it give advice about contacting the manufacturer to remove the item as for some white goods they have a duty to recycle them.

Last time I checked, there were two free collections per household allowed but I'm not sure if that is still the case.

We have a charity called 'SOFA' locally which will collect household items, refurbish them and then give them to homeless people setting up their first home. They also sell refurbished items to the general public. The refurbishing is done by volunteers and people who are gaining work experience - it's a brilliant system and there maybe something similar in your area!

Not sure about things being collected but a recent charge is £2.50 per bag (basically as much as you can lift) for hardcore and plasterboard. And that is after you have taken it to the tip yourself. The huge cost of clearing up the countryside from illegal tippers does not seem to have been thought about.

janeainsworth in reply to your point - I do use Freecycle and have re-homed quite a lot of items of furniture etc that way but I'm talking about things that no-one will want. We don't have a car so can't drive them to the tip ourselves. Some of the neighbouring boroughs charge much less or have free collections so itsnotfair it just seems very uneven.

Crazy prices indeed, how is that supposed to encourage people to dispose of items sensibly?
As Starling says not everything is suitable for Freecycle or wherever.
Our council don't charge for large items. I believe they collect from each area once a month and you leave the item where you would put out your wheelie bin.

It seems to change every few months in my area - I've just checked the Local Authority website and it's gone down to £15 for an unlimited number of items, which I think is great. Anything but fridges and freezers. I'm sure I paid £30 for a collection earlier this year (a defunct washing machine and a couple of old mattresses nobody wanted). And at one time they were charging £30 an item - they had to step back from this as it led to a big increase in fly-tipping.

When we lived in Hamburg many years ago they had a regular morning (perhaps once a month or every couple of months?) called Sparmuhl, when you could leave your unwanted household items out at the edge of the pavement and people could take what they wanted. We furnished our flat that way! At noon the binmen set off round collecting what was left. Knowing the German authorities, I should imagine that anything recyclable was then sorted out before it went to landfill.

Our council will also collect large items free of charge. We are allowed two collections a year free.

!

I can`t remember how much it is round here now, but it has gone up considerably. As a result, around the front of our houses (we live on a canal bank), we are being inundated with dumped stuff. At the moment of writing, there is, over a distance of 200 yards, a fridge freezer, a mattress, 3 wheel-less bikes, and 2 cardboard boxes of books. The people who do it aren`t stupid, they know that mugs like us pay to have our stuff carted away, whereas they dump theirs, and we phone the council to complain and the council pick it up, ergo they get theirs taken for free!

Starling if it is eg an old washing machine that you want removed, if you look up Local Services there is a man there who from memory does not charge because he gets paid when he sells the metal on.

I have been amazed in the past what the local Freecycle will pick up. I agree that something like a mattress may have to be paid for by the local council to be disposed.

Thanks but it wasn't white goods. Have had to pay the fees several times. Currently have more large items with no interest on Freecycle so guess will have to pay fees again.

Hi Starling, can you give me a clue as to what they are and I maybe able to help?

Hi Charleygirl, I'll PM you.

We get charged £10.00 for 1 item and £5.00 for any extra items which I think is a very good service and all collected with 3 days.
Also we have a service similar to kitty called "Wired" where they collect and recycle and resell to the community at really low cost just covering their parts, the labour is done by people learning a trade of some sort from electric's to carpentry so everyone benefits.

If you buy new white goods I think the supplier now has to take the old ones away and dispose of them.

I agree with jean that those who use the service should pay for it.

I know it isn't relevant to the OP but Age UK will pick up furniture and electricals free of charge and I think the YMCA may do too.

I use these guys - www.cleaners-banbury.co.uk/one-off-spring-cleaning-OX8/ and I am pretty sure they do rubbish removals as well. Call their number and they will give you a free quote, no strings attached ;)

I mean you can at least compare the prices, can be lower than £95 ;)