In the study, entitled 'The Increasing Value of Waste in the UK', the consultancy, which has offices across the UK, revealed that there are around 1,000 companies operating in the sector, as part of a £7 billion market, reflecting “the importance of local and regional markets”.
But, it noted that the 19 waste management companies with sales of over £20 million already represent 66% of the market.
And, it said that, with companies needing to large enough to ensure they could win and deliver large council contracts, their share was likely to increase further as mergers and acquisitions – which had reduced in the current economic slowdown – coming back onto the agenda.
“The market share of the top companies is expected to increase in the coming few years as business build scale to support the increasing costs associated with bidding for long-term local authority contracts,” Pöyry said.
In particular, it noted that these kind of deals made “the scale of operations, both service integration and geographical coverage” increasingly important.
Analysis
In the report, which was published last month, Pöyry also provides detailed analysis of markets for major waste streams, including materials such as paper, plastics and metals, and areas such as energy-from-waste and closed-loop recycling, and outlines opportunities for increasing the value from waste.
Looking at recovered plastics, the study highlights how food-grade recyclers have started their operations in the last 2-3 years with an investment of more than £30 million. Among the conclusions on plastics, that there may be longer term benefits in terms of price and sustainability selling to UK reprocessors rather than using export markets.
In terms of energy from waste, Pöyry noted “open resilience” from communities and groups to traditional incineration, prompting technologies like pyrolysis and gasification to enter the market.
“It is likely that the number of new large scale traditional incinerators could be limited whilst these smaller scale state-of-the-art facilities will have an increased focus as the technology develops,” it explained.
It also detailed the state of the UK materials recycling facility (MRF) infrastructure, and trends relating to areas such as the size of facilities and gate fees.
Outlining reasons influencing the success of a MRF operation, it stated: “There is no single factor enabling a successful and efficient MRF operation, but rather a set of key success factors which need to be addressed to create value.”
Among these it listed the quality of materials, containers, compaction by vehicles and the sorting equipment used as factors that needed to be considered by MRF operators.
And, with regards to materials, it outlines the opportunities available from sending material overseas, but stresses the part that UK reprocessors have to play, and considers ways that recovery levels of, for example, aluminium, could be increased.
More details about the report and its cost, contact David Powlson at Pöyry, email: david.powlson@poyry.com,
tel: 020 8770 3200.
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