Harmonised Recycling Collections Costs Project: Phase One

Executive Summary

Welsh Government (WG) has commissioned WRAP to expand on previous recycling collection modelling projects and consider the potential cost savings across Wales should authorities operate a harmonised dry recycling, food waste recycling and residual domestic waste collection system.

This work comprises two phases:

• Phase one: A comparison of direct operational costs of alternative recycling collection methods;
• Phase two: An analysis of the cost implications of alternative delivery structures, specifically the regional and national delivery of waste and recycling services.

This report details the results of the first phase of the work. In this phase, the cost of an average urban, rural and valley authority providing one of three different dry recycling collections service profiles was modelled. It is assumed that the service is provided in house as this is the case for the majority of Welsh Authorities.
This report does not consider any potential costs or savings from waste services being provided by regional or national bodies.