Tradespeople challenge Sorpa’s waste pricing system

Tradespeople are dissatisfied with how Sorpa charges for waste brought in by businesses, with fees based on staff estimates of volume varying widely. The complaints were reported by mbl.is.

Workers at recycling centres estimate how much waste customers bring and set the charge accordingly. Tradespeople say the assessments can be subjective and inconsistent, and that it costs less to take waste directly to Álfsnes, where it is weighed, than to use a recycling centre.

In a discussion in the Facebook group Icelandic Tradespeople, one person said a worker at a centre could decide by eye whether the fee should be 10,000 or 70,000 Icelandic kronur. Others agreed that pricing should not depend on such a subjective assessment. Some said waste is charged by weight at facilities outside the capital area.

One tradesperson said he recently brought timber and glass from a window replacement to Sorpa’s Breiðhella recycling centre and was told to pay 86,000 kronur. He refused and drove to Álfsnes instead, where the charge was 32,000 kronur.

Gunnar Dofri Ólafsson, Sorpa’s director of service and communications, said he had not heard about the discussion but was aware that some customers were unhappy with the current system. Measuring waste by volume is convenient but less precise than weighing it, he said.

“Sorpa operates under the Waste Management Act, which is quite clear that you should charge the actual cost of handling waste,” Gunnar Dofri said. He added that fees at recycling centres are intended to reflect as closely as possible the cost of receiving waste and directing it to the appropriate channel.

Recycling centres, including the one in Hafnarfjörður, are transfer points, so waste must be transported from them. That transport, sometimes over dozens of kilometres in container trucks, helps explain why it can be cheaper to take waste directly to Álfsnes, he said.

The centres are primarily intended for residents and light industry and are funded two-thirds by public money, according to Gunnar Dofri. Sorpa receives about 20,000 kronur a year per home in the capital area to operate them, meaning residents have already paid for some of the waste they bring in. Businesses are charged differently, and Sorpa introduced number-plate recognition as a way to bring charges closer to the actual cost.

Gunnar Dofri said Sorpa had not chosen to invest in a weighing system, which could also be complicated to use for each type of waste at the centres. “Measuring by volume is convenient. It is quick, but it is also less accurate,” he said.