Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste - Oakdene Hollins

© Oakdene Hollins Ltd, Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd
Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute Ltd September 2006
between return rates of the collection schemes is worthy of note, varying
from less than 1kg per household to over 2kg per household per year in the
above, albeit limited, sample. This variation is likely to be attributable to
both the method and the scale of the collection scheme as well as the
affluence of the area served. Another factor is the age of the scheme, with
many achieving high collection rates in the early months and then falling
back with time.
From the above, it is noted that if all Local Authorities in the UK operated
such schemes at the average return rate, the potential collection would be
approximately 30k tonnes per year. (The average collection rate of 1.25 kg
per household per year multiplied by 25million households). Clearly a
vastly improved returns rate would have to be achieved from kerbside
collection schemes in order to achieve a significant improvement in Local
Authority recycling rates, even if this policy were to be adopted nationally.
6.2.2 Economic Considerations
The Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, (LARAC), noted that
there are no publicly available data on either the extent or the costs of
kerbside collections. They estimate that it costs up to £450 per tonne to
collect plastic containers, from a base of zero, because of the high
volume/weight ratio. Textiles are relatively dense by comparison, but there
are a number of add‐on costs that would apply if they were to be added to
an existing collection round. These would comprise mainly operational
costs, such as bags and leaflets and additional labour.
The following additional operational costs are estimates based on industry
experience:
Purchase of bags and leaflets costs between £30 and £70 per 1,000.
Experience shows that only 150 bags per 1,000 bags distributed are returned
and these, on average, will generate 500kg of clothes. It follows that:
Bags etc. cost per tonne collected
£60 ‐ £140 per tonne
The additional labour time to collect and load a bag of clothing at the
kerbside (assuming that no further sorting is required) is assessed at a
minimum of 30 seconds per bag. This is equivalent to 150 minutes per
tonne collected. At a marginal labour and overhead rate of £20 per hour,
this costs a further £50 per tonne. The total marginal cost is, therefore,
estimated at:
Bags and Leaflets
Marginal Labour
Total marginal cost
£100 per tonne (average)
£50 per tonne
£150 per tonne
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