Well, the first thing you need to establish before you make any waves is to determine whether the tip shop is run by the council, or if it's been tendered out to a private mob to run on behalf of the council.
Our local recycle centre is run by a private company and it pretty much works like this: The takings at the gate for entering and "dumping" your rubbish are collected by council workers and that money goes directly to council. Once inside anything that goes on in relation to dumping, sorting, etc is at the discretion of the employees of the contractor. They can recycle or resell mowers etc to whoever they please. They are in essence a private company with the option of selling stuff to their mates or placing it in the tip shop to sell to the general public.
Good luck with your quest.
