Reports in the media that HMRC and the Government have done a U-turn on the Skip tax are simply not the true.

We have now received two further updates to clarify the position with regard to trommel fines,( a by product of recycling skip waste) but the changes originally announced in May by HMRC are still having a serious effect on the cost of disposal of the fines material.

For many years the fines have been used by landfill operators to help them meet their environmental compliance standards the material has been used as a daily cover and for other environmental works on the landfill site and the criteria for the make up of the fines was the subject of agreement between the landfill operator and the skip waste processor to allow the material to be classed at the lower rate of landfill tax.

In a nutshell what has happened is the specification to meet the new briefing from HMRC means that a lot of the materials that previously went into soil fines has now been excluded and the fines have to meet a far more refined composition. This means that the rest of the material now excluded has to go elsewhere and the additional costs of processing and disposal are being taken on the chin by the skip recycling operators.

It could not come at a worse time for an already hard pressed construction sector but to think the issue has gone away is making it really hard for skip operators to get the message across and while here at JWS Waste we have done a lot to mitigate the cost increase it is inevitable that we have to pass on a portion of the additional costs.