The UK Waste Management Industry
Do you know:
the cost of waste and effluent disposal to your company each year?
the charges that can be brought against any company under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for poor waste management?
What other industrial sector is given 100 million tonnes of free raw material every year plus a bonus of around £30 per tonne to manage its product?
In which sector has the market leader only a 4 per cent market share and is the threat of foreign competition from imports negligible?
Answer: the British waste handling business
Local authorities used to be the public face of the waste business. The next few years will see increasing penetration of the municipal market through mergers with the private sector. The industry's current annual revenue value approaches £3bn. This figure is made up of around £650m for municipal collection, £350m for municipal disposal and £2bn for collection and disposal in the industrial and commercial sectors. Most financial analysts anticipate the market growing to an annual £5bn by the year 2000 in real terms.
The waste sector is an industry in transformation. In the past, it has been dominated by small, often family owned, businesses. Today, the industry is undergoing rapid consolidation. Operators compete by increasing volumes and investing in specialist technologies demanding high levels of capital and new skills.
Because society prefers not to think about waste, it has a distorted understanding of waste management. This is hardly fair. Operators do not simply collect and throw away rubbish, they are the front line of a professional waste management industry. It is an industry promoting leading edge environmental technology and emphasising standards, professionalism and training. Waste managers are proud of their role in the front line of environmental protection and their task of protecting society from the consequences of industrial consumption.
Is waste disposal in the UK different from other countries?
The geography of the UK offers large areas with impervious clay subsoils. This makes secure landfill far more widely available than in mainland Europe. This is reflected in the fact that around 90% of the UK's waste goes into landfill sites.
British firms enjoy waste disposal at lower cost than their European competitors. Corporate Britain has been cushioned from the costs of high waste production. However, landfill costs in the UK are set to rise dramatically.
What are the logistical difficulties of solid waste disposal?
Waste has the logistical characteristics of an ordinary product, but in reverse. It arises throughout the country, must be gathered, moved to collection points for sorting and treatment, or moved direct to a final disposal point. The disappearance of large convenient landfill sites adjacent to main centres of population now results in waste being transported ever greater distances to cheaper landfill sites often in rural areas.
Rubbish is first gathered in small vehicles suited to towns and industrial estates. It is then off loaded at transfer stations before long distance haulage to landfill sites. This 'double-handling' drives up costs.
These additional costs on road transport or rail infrastructures must be passed on to the waste producer. For example, Bedfordshire accepts rail-borne waste from Avon, and much of London's waste is exported to Oxfordshire, Kent and Bedfordshire.
The logistical challenges of waste disposal dictate economies of scale and as a result the industry is going through rapid concentration.
Large waste management firms, on a secure financial footing, are emerging to offer "one-stop-shop" packages to waste producers.
As waste disposal costs climb over the next decade, the benefits of a one-stop-shop will come into their own. Large-scale waste operators, who have invested in engineering and scientific expertise and secure facilities will guarantee a range of benefits particularly to multi-site companies.
Waste producers should be able request services such as waste stream analysis, strategic planning on future trends, access to new technologies, and the best available recycling opportunities. Administrative costs will be streamlined; for a multiplan manufacturer, this could mean replacing as many as 500 invoices a month with one - a Saving of as much as £60,000. Most vitally, beside these services which will offer financial gain, firms will have the guarantee legal compliance in the disposal of their waste.
Liquid waste disposal
An unknown quantity of waste arises each year as liquid, not solid. Some industrial effluents are released to the sea and estuaries, but the EC is stepping up its scrutiny on this method of liquid disposal. Many companies involved in sea, estuaries or sewer disposal does so on the basis of 'discharge consents' now being reviewed by the NRA.
The EC does not promote the consignment of any liquids to landfill. Opinions on this differ in the UK waste industry. Evidence from the US shows that the long term costs and liabilities of dealing with saturated landfill outweigh the short term cash benefits of disposing of liquids in a site.
Liquid waste treatment
Environmental policies have resulted in attempts throughout the UK to reduce noxious discharges of untreated or semi-treated material into water. In some river systems, the timetable for such action is being accelerated because rivers are already overloaded. Recent reviews of river water quality by the NRA point to a worsening of the situation in a number of parts of the UK.
Industry and the water companies have promoted treatment systems to handle this liquid waste. Small on site plants neutralise noxious chemical wastes into material that can be safely discharged into the local river or foul sewer. Any potentially polluting salts, or other solids, can be removed from the waste stream on the manufacturers' premises and shipped by tanker to specialist treatment plant.
