Community recycling groups are operating "fewer kerbside collections" as more and more private sector waste management companies add the service to local authority contracts, members of the third sector have claimed, writes Chris Sloley.

And, speaking to letsrecycle.com, representatives of the community sector claimed that there had been some "rationalising" in the sector, leading to a number of projects either stopping, heading towards closure or being amalgamated into other ventures.

Community recycling group Kerbside Calderdale was unable to reach an agreement with SITA UK after the company won the contract to run the Yorkshire borough's kerbside recycling services, and has since ceased to operate

They claimed that community groups were increasingly turning to running other reuse and recycling initiatives to compensate for waste management and recycling companies taking over the kerbside collections which had previously been run by third sector organisations.

Paul Smith, chief executive of the Furniture Reuse Network, said: "There are fewer kerbside collections in the third sector over the past few years. I think it is the private sector seeing it as a good idea and they have been able to include it in their contracts."

"In terms of furniture we are getting an increasing number of councils which are building furniture reuse into their contracts so it means we will be working with the Viridor's of the world on certain bits of a contract," he added.

Private

Cylch chief executive Mal Williams pointed to the continued work of community groups operating kerbside collections in South Wales

Acknowledging the increasing trend of private sector companies adding provisions for kerbside collections into their local authority contracts, Mal Williams, chief executive of Welsh third sector organisation Cylch, expressed concern about the impact this was having on community sector efforts.

He said: "I should say that I am happy that somebody is doing the kerbside sorting but I am not. My main focus is kerbside sort. And I think we are missing the point; the point is that the community sector is run by people who don't come at it for profit and they want to do good for the community at a cost the community can bear."

The on-going issue of private companies and community groups working together on collection contracts was raised most recently in Calderdale, with the award of a seven-year recycling and refuse contact to waste management firm SITA UK, leading to a stand-off with community group Kerbside who had previously run the borough's household recycling collections.

The parties had initially agreed to work together to deliver the service but they failed to reach an agreement on this, resulting in Kerbside ceasing to operate. SITA has since formed a partnership with Oldham-based community group Orchard Recycling to run a six-month trial for the collection of bulky waste and electrical goods (see letsrecycle.com story).

Prominence

However, Mr Williams claimed that, despite the impact of the private sector, the community sector was still managing to offer a kerbside service in large areas of Wales, and in South Wales in particular.

Mr Williams said: "We have got one group in Newport, a kerbside organisation, collecting 12,000 tonnes out of 50,000 tonnes in a given area. We have three committed to Monmouth, Newport (Wastesavers) and in Torfean (Clean Stream Recycling) and they are working well."

Mr Williams did highlight that an important shift had occurred when one of the largest community groups operating kerbside collections - ECT Recycling - was sold to waste and services firm May Gurney for £3.4 million in June last year (see letsrecycle.com story).

"They had 12 contracts for 90,000 tonnes and we didn't think that we could be bought out," Mr Williams said. "We actually thought that a community industry with a community interest made it hard to be sold to an industrial company."

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which is working with groups representing community organisations to build third sector capacity, said that the decline of kerbside collections could be linked to the increased scope of council collection schemes.

Nick Kightley, partnership manager for the third sector at WRAP, said: "Kerbside collections, which have been a traditional third sector activity, may be less significant now as local authority schemes grow. But the decline of this activity is not inevitable and it is part of our progression objectives to see how third sector organisations can gain a share in that area."