HUNDREDS of skips could be abandoned on the streets after waste companies were hit with a tax hike of 25 times the current rate.

A shockwave has been sent through the entire recycling industry after Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) closed a loophole on dumping non-recyclable inert waste.

The rate has shot up from £2.50 a tonne to an eye-watering £64 a tonne.

The change comes after HMRC said waste known as “fines” – the rubble left over from the recycling process – could no longer be deposited at the lower rate.

Skip operators have now threatened to blockade London during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend unless the Government reverses the rise.

In Huddersfield, skip company bosses said the change could destroy the industry.

Stephen Hillas, from Huddersfield Skip Services said the change could blow a £100,000 hole in his budget.

He said: “This affects me massively, they’ve given us no warning.

“I have over 300 skips out there that I’ve got to collect next week. I don’t know what’s in those skips, but I’ve charged at a rate on the basis of the £2.50 per tonne fee.

“All these business models I’ve set up for the next 12 months have just been blown out of the water.

“We were struggling as it was as there are no developments going on in Huddersfield apart from the Waterfront project.

“Builders aren’t going to be able to afford this rise so the knock on effect is huge.”

Tristan Lee from CPR Skip Hire, predicted a fly-tipping epidemic as the cost of skip hire became unaffordable.

He said: “I’m very worried about this, it’s an absolute nightmare.

“I currently charge £135 for a large skip but that needs to be about £300 now.

“The Government should let the public know it’s not us being greedy.

“Landfill tax goes up by £10 every year regardless and diesel has gone up.

“All this rubbish we get from households, we’re trying to clear it up legally. They ask us to recycle and now they’re penalising us.

“At the end of the day, it’s got to come out of the customers’ pockets.

“I don’t think people will be able to afford it and we’ll go back to the bad old days of people dumping on country lanes.

“Then the councils will have to go round clearing it up like they did years ago.”

Heather Price, from Slaithwaite’s Cheap as Skips, said the whole industry was in chaos as it tried to work out what to do.

She said it appeared there may be another loophole for companies like hers that did not use machines to recycle their waste.

But she said if she did have to pay the higher rate it could bankrupt her, meaning the 100 skips she had out on the streets could be abandoned.

She said: “We’ve got hundreds out on the road which we’ve charged customers at the lower rate. If we have to pay the higher rate we’ll be out of pocket and it could bankrupt us.

“Our quarry reckons they’ve found a loophole and they can still charge us £2.50 as we manually sort our stuff.

“I think this will hit the bigger companies that use screening and trommelling machines to process the contents of the skips.

“But it’s not really clear what’s going on. Nobody knows what to do, what to charge or how to handle it.”