Select a region
People might need to pay for their own recycling bags in the future, as the States Trading Supervisory Board looks at ways of applying a 25p recycling charge to blue and clear bags.
Express reported STSB’s proposals for introducing a new waste charge last week. It's due to the success of the Waste Strategy implemented in 2018 leading to Guernsey Waste not generating enough revenue from black bag sticker sales to fund the provision of waste and recycling services.
The pay as you throw sticker charge has raised more than £2 million less than forecast.
On average, households throw out one clear bag a fortnight and just over one full blue bag. This equates to 1.6 million full bags a year and it’s estimated that charging 25p per bag would generating up to £400,000 a year.
Pictured: Guernsey Waste spend roughly £2.2 million a year providing a recycling service.
STSB has suggested that the application of the charge could be done through charging for the recycling bags themselves.
“This could be applied through a charge for the bags themselves, rather than for a separate sticker,” said STSB.
“This would avoid collection contractors having to check for additional payment labels. It would also be a more straightforward for households, as it would avoid having to purchase different stickers for different waste streams.”
STSB also said that if this method was to be brought in, it would need to change the colour of the island’s recycling bags: “This would avoid the prospect of households amassing large supplies of free bags in anticipation of avoiding future charges.”
Pictured: STSB says the new charges could come in 2023.
STSB chose not to suggest a recycling charge for food waste caddies and glass recycling for several reasons. The main reason being that the containers for food and glass are specifically made to carry this waste.
Food caddies need to be sturdy and “vermin proof” while glass bags are built specifically to avoid contamination. Bringing in new stickers wouldn’t be viable and having customers pay for new bags each time would be costly.
Additionally, STSB wants people to put out food waste weekly, to avoid storing it and creating hygience issues.
“For these reasons, it is considered impractical at this stage to introduce a pay as you throw charge for food waste or for glass,” said STSB.
“Difficult position” forcing STSB to propose recycling charges
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.