CRN welcomes collection cost report

CRN UK has welcomed the recent Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) report Kerbside Recycling: Indicative Costs and Performance, which reveals that kerbside sort schemes and two-stream co-mingled collections, which were found to have similar net costs, are more cost effective than single stream co-mingled.

Lucy Danger, CRN UK Chair said: “We’re not at all surprised by these findings, which bear out our own modelling work and are backed up by empirical evidence, such as last year’s Welsh Assembly Government report which showed that Welsh local authorities are getting much better value for money from kerbside sort operations. We are also unsurprised by the response from private sector MRF specialists, who are clearly more interested in protecting their commercial interests than providing value for money to local authorities. This was a thoroughly-researched and widely-reviewed study, some criticisms of which demonstrate a lack of understanding of the document itself and a biased view of the current market conditions.”

She added: “The basic figures are not hard to grasp: in the first instance, collecting co-mingled costs less than sorting at the kerbside. However, as the cost of running a good MRF is approximately £70-80 per tonne, kerbside sort is cheaper in whole-system terms. We also know that the average value of kerbside-sorted material is more than that from a MRF, with a greater percentage of high value materials being recovered and sold. This increases the cost gap identified by WRAP. This also means that recent increases in materials values will continue to disproportionately benefit kerbside sort.”

Phillip Ward, Director for Local Government Services at WRAP, said of the report: “The aim of this study is to provide a benchmark to help local authorities understand the cost of a good recycling system. The results will help the authorities understand how to limit the cost of the service to householders.

“Collection scheme costs are sensitive to many things, such as the price which can be achieved for recycled material, and new technology means material sorted by MRFs is likely to improve in quality. This means it would be wrong to assume that one type of collection scheme is always going to be cheaper or produce better quality material than another.

“For any recycling scheme to be successful, it needs to be easy to use, reliable, flexible and to manage health and safety risks. Above all it must be effectively communicated so householders are motivated to use it, buy in to the service, and are able to raise issues and problems knowing these will be dealt with.”