James Norvill, BCC Welsh Entrepreneur of the Year and Managing Director of GD Environmental Services.
Last week it was revealed that there are larger penalties for those who overfill their council bins than those convicted of vandalism, shoplifting or being drunk and disorderly. Has the country lost grip with reality or is the domestic waste market an easy target for cash generation?
It has been well documented that many councils have signed long term contracts with private waste companies to transfer and process household waste. When these agreements were made waste was a headache and costly process with little to no end value. How times have changed! Over the last decade the waste industry has witnessed a significant rise in the value of waste. Within the plastics market the value of mixed plastic has tripled over the last 6 months to £230 per tonne compared with just £10 per tonne 6 years ago. This trend has continued across the waste industry with copper worth up to 10 times more than 4 years ago and the price of scrap metal at an all time high. This has caused a real stir within the public sector?
Council’s across the UK are frantically trying to renegotiate agreed contracts to try and salvage profits generated by private companies. Local Councils realise that the value of their waste if recycled correctly could be worth in excess of £1m per year which would be a useful resource to develop the local community and assuring long term prosperity for their region. The council taxpayers in Wales have seen little increase in council tax over the last 2 years as a direct result of savings made from recycling waste. But could more work be done in the community for councils to profit from waste?
Across Europe, many nations have cashed in on the rise in the value of waste through developing recycling centres where the general public receive cash in exchange for plastic bottles and cans. It’s interesting to see the homeless and unemployed walking the streets collecting rubbish rather than begging. The Centres assure the council are making money on collected waste and the general public are happy as the streets and parks are clean from litter and they have a financial incentive to recycle more of their waste. This must be the next step for Wales? Wouldn’t it be great to encourage the government to offer this service to the unemployed so they can contribute to the community? Or would a more extreme approach of getting the many benefit joyriders that have used the system for many years to be forced to contribute to the community through collecting litter and cleaning graffiti or face losing their handouts? I wouldn’t be surprised for councils to introduce a similar system to this in the next year to reduce benefits and increase revenue from this prosperous period within the waste recycling industry.
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For more information on GD Environmental Services please call 01633 277755 or visit www.gd-environmental.co.uk
