International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

The kerbside sort systems shown in the Table, which suggest a lower cost, are not so
relevant in the current context as few if any are currently operated in Ireland.
Nevertheless, they are of relevance more generally. International experience, indeed,
including from Northern Ireland, shows that kerbside sort approaches can be
particularly cost competitive on collection costs alone. The particular advantage they
hold is that since material is segregated at collection, it can be sold direct to recovery
markets rather than incurring sorting costs. Issues of contamination and rejects are
also largely avoided.
64.3.2 Collection in Eden District Council, England
The collection services operated in Eden District Council are interesting to compare to
the situation in Ireland. Throughout the review we have undertaken, it has been
argued that Ireland is in some way ‘unique’, and that as a result, the collection
systems in place in other countries might not be transferable to the Irish context. One
of the arguments advanced in support of Ireland’s ‘uniqueness’ is its low population
density. Clearly, though, the majority of countries have both urban and rural areas,
and few are uniquely composed of one or the other.
Eden is the least densely populated local authority in England, with a population of 23
persons per square kilometre. The average population density across the Republic of
Ireland as a whole stands at 60/km 2 , with a range from Dublin City at 4,304/km 2 , to
Leitrim at 18/km 2 and Mayo 22/km 2 . As such it may be fair to parallel Eden with the
more remote areas of Ireland. 1282
The services operated in Eden are a weekly sack based collection of refuse from all
24,000 households, fortnightly kerbside sort collection of dry recyclable materials
(paper, cans and glass) from 15,000 households, and a fortnightly (4-weekly in
winter) collection of garden waste from 15,000 households using wheeled bins.
Data from Eden’s revised waste management strategy gives detail on the costs paid
to collection contractors for the separate collection systems in operation. The figure of
£158,000 is quoted for a fortnightly kerbside sort collection operation provided to
15,839 households in the district. Using an exchange rate of £1.33 to €1, this
equates to a collection service cost of €13 per household per annum.
We have specific insight into the collection systems operated in Eden having
conducted detailed cost modelling in a WRAP-funded study, for the authority, of the
existing and potential replacement collection systems in the district. Our proprietary
collection cost model, Hermes, has to date been used to model collection systems for
around 25% of local authorities in the UK, frequently in the context of local authority
business cases and procurements, and sometimes used with contractors
interrogating the model, giving us some confidence in the costs and performance of a
vast range of different collection systems operated in different environments.
The baseline service in Eden includes:
1282 http://www.cso.ie/newsevents/pr_census2006vol1.htm
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