Local authorities are ripping off charities by having their waste falsely classified as “commercial” and then charging them hundreds of millions of pounds to have it disposed of by appointed council contractors.

According to campaigning journalist Christopher Booker, writing in the Sunday Telegraph the councils are breaching the 1992 Controlled Waste Regulations which rules that the waste from a wide variety of non-commercial bodies, including charity shops, care homes, hospitals, schools and prisons is classified as “household”.

West country waste consultant Henry Howe has been campaigning for seven years to expose the fraud and can be contacted at [email protected] . The Association of Charity Shops estimates that it is saving in excess of £200,000 a year by persuading 68 councils to comply with the law. Apparently the NHS alone pays an estimated £50 million a year to councils in wrongful charges.