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

In many jurisdictions, where the pre-existing situation is collection of revenue through
flat-rate charging, establishing a new billing system – an issue particularly for
frequency and weight-based schemes - can imply a significant part of the set-up cost.
In such situations, prior to pay-by-use being introduced, waste related fees would
have been included as part of a wider charge on services provided by, or on behalf of,
the public sector. Following introduction, dedicated billing for waste related services is
required. Arguably, in Ireland, this is not an ‘additional cost’ since the bill would have
been sent to households by collection companies irrespective of whether a PBU
system was in place.
Much of the focus of the Defra charging report was to assess the costs and benefits
associated with a broad implementation of charging schemes across England. Key
figures are shown in Table 8-9.
The summarised financial cost-benefit results from this report are shown in Table
8-10. These highlight the fact that up front costs can be offset by system savings. The
report highlighted how these savings change as the marginal costs of avoided
residual waste treatment / disposal change.
Table 8-9: Key Costs for Introduction of Charging Schemes
Sack Sack-based Sack Sack based
Bin
Bin
Volume-
Volume
based
based
Frequency Frequency-
Frequency
based
based
Weight-
Weight
based
based
Unit Price Number Number Number Number
CAPITAL CAPITAL ITEMS
ITEMS
Fleet Fleet Fleet management management software software £5,000 1 1
Scanners Scanners £1,500 2 2
Delive Delivery Delive Delive ry and and Scanning Scanning Scanning of of Bins Bins Bins 65 65 £65,000 1 1
Startup Startup Call Call Centre Centre 25 25 700hrs 700hrs 8400 8400 up
up
to to to 30
30
£30,000 1 1 1 1
Start Start up up Info Info Info £100,000 1 1 1 1
Bin Bin changes changes (averaged (averaged over over 10 10 years) years)
£0.17
Annualised Annualised Annualised Capital Capital Cost Cost per per hhld hhld hhld
£0.49 £0.66 £0.77 £0.77
OPERATI OPERATING OPERATI OPERATING
NG COSTS
Additional Additional Staff Staff for for Implementation Implementation /
/
queries
queries
£24,000 2 2 2 2
Additional Additional Additional Monitoring Monitoring of of Fly Fly-tips Fly tips £50,000 1 1 1 1
Annual Annual Cost Cost per per per hhld hhld
£1.96 £1.96 £1.96 £1.96
TOTAL TOTAL COST COST PER PER HHLD HHLD (before (before billing) billing)
£2.45
1p per sack
£2.62 £2.73 £2.73
Billing Billing Costs Costs (pe (per (pe (pe r hhld)
hhld)
sales
revenue to
vendors
£5.08 £5.60 £5.60
TOTAL TOTAL COST COST PER PER HHLD HHLD (after (after billing)
billing)
Approx
£3.00
£7.70 £8.33 £8.33
Source: Hogg, D., Wilson, D., Gibbs, A., Astley, M., Papineschi, J. (2006) Modelling the Impact of
Household Charging for Waste in England, Final Report to Defra.
147
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes