Councils ‘may stop running HWRCs in 5-10 years’

Councils may stop running household waste and recycling centres in five to ten years as local communities rise to the challenge of managing the sites themselves, according to a local authority officer.

Mark Deer, from Suffolk county council, told the LARAC conference yesterday (October 17) that his experience of closing seven of Suffolks 18 recycling centres due to budget cuts had shown that local businesses and the third sector were capable of stepping in.

Since the sites were closed, five have been successfully re-opened by partnerships between local parish and town councils and private companies or charities.

Mr Deer said: Out of seven sites which have been closed, five are still operating in some form. We believe this is an interesting example of localism, when communities are faced with a challenge. It puts the ball back in the communities court to come up with a solution.

Hampering

Mr Deer questioned whether, by running household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), local authorities were hampering communities and the third sector from running them themselves and suggested that council-run sites may become “unnecessary”.

He said: I think the time will come when local authorities step away from HWRCs. Not now but maybe in five or ten years. It is something that we need to look at when we look at retendering the contract again for the service.

By no longer running the seven HWRCs, Mr Deer said that Suffolk had saved 1.45 million, a significant proportion of the 2.3 million the council needed to shave off its waste budget in 2011/12.

Sites

Mr Deer listed the recycling centres which have been successfully re-opened in Suffolkas: Beccles HWRC, which is now run by Beccles town council and B&B Skip Hire; Southwold HWRC, run by Southwold town council and scrap metal firm Sole Bay Motors; Brome HWRC, taken over by a new operator in September 2012; and Newmarket HWRC, which is run by Newmarket town council and local charity Newmarket Open Door.

Less successful sites have included Chelmondiston HWRC, which was re-opened by local parish councils and Collins Skip Hirebut lost money. The site is now being used as a bring site for recyclables. Bramford HWRC, which was taken on by Bramford parish council and Bolton Bros, was alsoforced to close due to low visitor numbers.

Mr Deer explained that the council continued to give technical and legal support to the sites and advice on communications and had provided land at peppercorn rent to interested groups through the local town or parish councils.

Commenting on the Newmarket HWRC, which won the award for Best Community Recycling Initiative in May 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story), he said: The site has gone from strength to strength. It also accepts business waste and recycling, offers a waste paper collection scheme for local businesses and also works with local churches, which act as drop-off points for waste paper.