Where's there muck there's brass—particularly now that a raft of recycling legislation is
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opening up new opportunities for hauliers. Juliet Morrison reports
on the operators who are happy to get their hands di
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ith Britain fast running out of landfill space, Westminster and Brussels have both introduced measures to make sure we recycle more of our waste. But this puts the green lobby in a bit of a quandary: there will inevitably be more truck journeys if local authorities are to meet a series of mandatory targets for recycling waste, which will ini tially lead to more than three million tonnes of waste a year being diverted from landfill.
Under these measures, waste which would previously have gone direct to over-used landfill sites will be sent to waste sorting centres, where material suitable for recycling or composting will be separated, while waste destined for landfill will mostly be treated. This will almost certainly mean rubbish being transported to various locations such as specialist recyding plants, and many of these sites will be some distance from where the waste is produced.
Take paper, for example. The majority of paper collected in the south of England would have to be transported to the NorthWest, although some could be recycled in Kent.
Understandably, the environmental lobby would like to keep recycling local but in many cases this will not be possible, says Steve Eminton, editor of recycling industry web site letsrecycle.com. "In reality, we will have to truck further than people would like—I would say 200 miles," Eminton predicts. "Paper from Hampshire will have to go to the North-West, for example. If glass is collected in southern England, there is only one glass maker, in Harlow. And while there is a large population in the South-East, heavy industry to process the materials is not there."
Even if waste was put onto rail—an expensive option, when weighed against the relatively low prices paid for recycled material—it would probably have to be transported from the railhead. "You can't get away from, the fact that material has to be moved," says Eminton.
This is good news for hauliers. Although Britain has a reasonable track record in recycling commercial and industrial waste, it's only in the past three or four years that household waste recycling has been taken seriously, says Eminton.
Domestic recycling will be given new impetus by the European Landfill Directive, due to be translated into UK law by this July; and by the Government's own waste strategy targets, which were announced last May. But Eminton wonders if the haulage industry has the capacity and skills to cope with the likely increase in business.
"We had one guy contacting us saying that he was finding it difficult to get trucks to work for his scrap metal business," he says. "It does make me wonder whether the transport industry will be able to cope."
Scrap metal
The scrap metal merchant in question is Ipswich-based S Sacker (Claydon); joint managing director Adrian Dodds is also president of the southern branch of the British Metals Federation. He says his problem is commonplace: "On a daily basis, I find it difficult to get haulage and I know many others in the same position. We've even had to buy our own trailer because of this, and we don't really want to have to operate trucks ourselves."
However, some hauliers are prepared to invest in what they believe will be an expanding market for recycling. Half brothers Will Wellings and Sheridan Jaundrell have spent bin on a purpose-built waste transfer station which is due to start operating in Telford next month.
Until now their 35-truck waste collection business, Pink Skips, has tended to put a lot of the 10,000 tonnes of waste it handles each month into landfill. They have found it difficult to manage the sorting of the waste on most of their clients' sites. "On building sites you could have four or five different bins to separate the likes of soil and bricks, wood and metal. And with different people working on the site every day, it becomes very difficult to oversee," says Will Wellings. Sorting the waste at their own depot will make the business more environmentally friendly— a marketing tool which the brothers plan to exploit to win new contracts.
There will be other benefits too, says Wellings. They will be able to avoid the costly tipping fees and landfill tax, which is currently ill per tonne and is due to rise by a year until 2004. Instead, they will be able to sell a lot of the material to the recyclers. "Finding a home for the material is not really a problem," says Wellings. "Wood can go to the local merchant to be made into chip; metal to the scrap yard; and hard core can be sold to farmers or the local landfill site to maintain its roads."
By keeping their trucks away from the notoriously unforgiving conditions found on landfill sites, they also hope to cut their maintenance costs. "Our tyre bill is phenomenal," says Wellings. "We're spending between £10000 and £12,000 a month on tyres alone. On some days we might have to
change four tyres on one lorry. Plus we have the problem of diesel tanks being ripped off and gear boxes being ripped out. You never know, we might even get to wear our tyres out!"
Despite the costs associated with using landfill sites, it could still he cheaper to dump light materials like wood, paper and plastic than to recycle them, says Simon Ford, managing director of Allstone Sand and Gravel, which operates a recyding plant alongside its skip hire and aggregates extraction and distribution business. However, the Gloucesterbased firm boasts a 33% recycling rate for building materials.
The company has also created a lucrative recycling sideline in selling 500 railway sleepers a month at up to £17 each since they became the latest rage in garden improvement.