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Do more bins mean higher bills?

Cost effective?

So do more bins equal higher costs? If you’re talking about general waste that ends up in landfill, the answer is yes. Filling ten bins a week with rubbish will obviously cost you more than if you filled five. However, if the bins are full of “valuable” recycling, then the opposite is true.

What’s going in?

Whether more bins on site will result in larger bills depends on what’s in them. This is because many products are now worth a lot to waste contractors. For example, they can sell clean plastic bottles for over £200 per tonne. If they’re sent to landfill, it will cost them £72 per tonne in tax alone, plus the transport and other associated costs.

Tip 1. If you help them make money by separating the potentially valuable materials from the general waste, contractors will be happy to complete additional collections etc. without charging you more. But if the contractor has to separate the materials, you’re unlikely to see any reduction in collection costs etc.

Tip 2. You can identify how much your waste may be worth by visiting the WRAP website (see The next step).

Don’t discount single bins

Tip. If it isn’t practical to have a large number of bins on your site, speak to your waste contractor. Many of them will take the waste and recyclable materials in a single bin and then separate them for you. Whilst you may not get quite as good a deal as you would if you sorted it yourself, this option may help you to avoid Landfill Tax.

Case study

When the Hanging Bat pub in Edinburgh used two bins for all wastes, including glass, metal cans, general and food, its disposal costs were £52.44 a week. However, when the waste material was split into five bins, the costs dropped to £50.71. The costs were lower even though the waste contractor completed more collections and supplied the additional bins. We appreciate that a £90 per year saving isn’t much, however, it does show what’s achievable - even on a relatively small scale.

The obvious downsides

Five bins take up more space than two, and you will have to train staff to use them correctly.

Tip. If bins are contaminated, in other words, general waste is put into recyclable material bins, your contractor may refuse to collect it. If they do take it away, you are likely to be charged a fee to sort it out.

Plan for the future

Although the Hanging Bat saved only £90 per year, this could rise in future years - and without any additional effort. This is because Landfill Tax rates will continue to increase and greater pressure will be put on waste contractors to convince - usually by financial means - their clients to recycle.

For a link to the WRAP website, visit http://tipsandadvice-environment.co.uk/download(EN 08.01.07).