Cherwell brings glass collection service in-house

The North Oxfordshire district council – which does not collect glass at the kerbside – has 75 glass recycling banks across the district where the material is separated into green, brown and clear.

Up until now, it has outsourced its glass bring bank collection service to a company called Thamesdown Glass, based near Swindon.

Under the deal, Cherwell paid Thamesdown 80,000 a year and Thamesdown also received income from the sale of the material. The contract ran until February 2011 but continued on a monthly basis until early summer.

However now, the council has invested in its own 26-tonne vehicle manufactured by DAF, which has its UK base at Thame in Oxfordshire. The vehicle has a Link Tip body and a HIAB crane, enabling it to empty the banks. The vehicle will have a dedicated full-time driver who will also empty battery banks and clear the bring bank sites in Cherwell of any debris which occasionally accumulates.

The initial vehicle cost of 130,000 is expected to be recouped within the first 18 months.

Almost 2,700 tonnes of glass was collected in Cherwell last year which the council said saved it 224,100 in landfill costs. In addition, the council received a 42 per tonne credit from Oxfordshire county council for the material which brought in 108,000.

On top of this, the council expects to bring in an average 10 per tonne of glass it sells, which would have been 27,000 last year.

Councillor James Macnamara, Cherwells lead member for environment, said: Because our glass collections are colour-separated, it is worth more in resale. Thanks to the efforts of residents we will already have a massive amount of glass to sell each year and the more they recycle, the more they will save in tax.

Transport costs

It is estimated that the new in-house collection service will also save in the region of 10,000 miles per year on the roads. This is because the new glass collection vehicle will be based in Banbury, much closer to the banks it is serving than Thamesdowns vehicles which had to travel from Swindon.

Glass collected in Cherwell is sold for recycling into new containers to Berrymans Glass.

Commenting on the move to bring the glass service in-house, a spokesman for the council said: Thamesdown Glass has always provided an excellent service. However, bringing this work in house is reducing revenue costs as well as reducing vehicle emissions. Services can be efficiently delivered in-house or by a contractor. In this particular case bringing the service in-house represented the most cost-effective solution.