The council’s executive will meet today (January 28) to discuss the proposal to increase the collection cost to businesses by 2.5%, a move that the council says could generate over £8,000 in additional income. Under the plans, the charge for collecting recyclables would remain unchanged.
Councillors are to discuss plans to increase the amount businesses are charged to have their waste collected
Businesses are currently charged on a weekly or six monthly basis for the collection of material, with collection costs dependent on the size of the container being collected from the commercial premises.
At present, the council charges £4.40 per week for the collection of a 120Ltr residual waste bin, £7.25 for a £240Ltr container, £10.50 for a 360tr container, £20.75 for a 660Ltr container and £30.70 for a 110Ltr container. Businesses are also charged a £40 per year administrative cost for use of the service.
Blaenau Gwent has proposed the move after acknowledging that the cost for the treatment of material from businesses is to rise from April 2015.
Treatment
In a report to councillors ahead of today’s meeting the council states that the current cost for handling residual waste, which is treated at New Earth Solutions’ mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility at Avonmouth is around £102.81 per tonne, including haulage.
The cost for processing food waste is currently set at £58.33 per tonne, although this is also due to increase from April.
According to Blaenau Gwent, roughly 735 tonnes of commercial refuse is collected annually from the 201 local businesses and organisations that use the service, which creates an income of around £221,126 to the council.
As well as changes to commercial waste collections, the council has also approved a switch to three-weekly residual waste collections for household waste in a bid to encourage residents to increase the amount they recycle (see letsrecycle.com story).
The switch from a fortnightly to a residual service was approved by councillors in September 2014, and is due to be implemented from autumn 2015.
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