Consultation begins today on the best way for van-using residents to carry on visiting recycling centres for free. 

Staffordshire County Council is planning on issuing households with free permits to distinguish between them and traders pretending to be private residents. 

This will allow residents to continue using Staffordshire 14 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) as normal, while discouraging traders who try to avoid paying fees by passing off commercial waste as household rubbish. 

Simon Tagg, Staffordshire County Council's Cabinet member for Environment, Infrastructure and Waste, said: "The new system will allow householders to carry on using HWRCs free of charge as usual, while weeding out small businesses which try and avoid paying for the service. "

Staffordshire is one of few authorities in the area which does accept trade waste to support local businesses, but as it is not a statutory service, a fee does apply. 

Problems arise when traders insist that they are residents with a one-off disposal and - at present - there is no way of challenging that.

Staffordshire County Council brought management of its HWRCs back-in-house in April, with a commitment to improve facilities and provide greater flexibility to meet future recycling requirements.