Increase in trade waste charges proposed for Aberdeenshire area
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Aberdeenshire councillors are being recommended to approve an increase in trade waste charges.
The local authority's infrastructure services committee will hold its first online meeting of the new year on Thursday.
It will assess trade waste charges for 2021/22 and also the potential future impact of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) which will now be introduced in July 2022.
In a report from the council's waste management team that will go before councillors it is recommended that for residual waste charges a proposed increase of 2.87 per cent on last year's figures be applied.
The planned rise for mixed recycling charges is 8.16 per cent on last year's costs.
The report said: "This year has been a tough year on all types of business across the country, with many incurring additional costs or loss in income due to increased distancing required within the premises or restrictions on opening and other lockdown measures.
"Aberdeenshire Council has lost significant numbers of trade waste customers as the private sector are expanding their collection areas further into Aberdeenshire, which may be due to capacity in their vehicles due to reduction in business custom within Aberdeen city.
"We need to ensure that our prices remain competitive against external businesses otherwise we risk losing more of our customer base which in turn reduces the income when comparing against current customer numbers.
"The proposed residual waste charges are an increase of 2.87 per cent on last year's figures. This is above the projected inflationary lift of 2.8 per cent due to the anticipated landfill tax rise of three per cent.
"The proposed mixed recycling charges are an increase of 8.16 per cent on last year's costs due to a significant reduction in trade glass collected since April 2020.
"The income from trade glass is used to offset sorting costs for mixed recycling. This is projected to remain reduced for the fiscal year 2021/22, thereafter the Deposit Return Scheme is scheduled to come into force which will reduce any trade glass income further meaning there is likely to be zero offset against mixed recycling costs in future years.
"The increase in charges in this report equates to an annual rise of £4.06 per annum for a standard 240L waste bin collection (most common collection container) and an annual rise of £13.04 per annum for a standard 240L recycling bin collection."
The report outlined that the Deposit Return Scheme was initially due to be introduced this year but has been delayed until July 2022.
It said the full details of the scheme are not yet known but it would have an affect on the waste service.
The report added: "One potential impact could be a further increase in processing costs of mixed recycling due to the removal of economically valuable materials (plastic bottles, cans) out of the current mixed recycling composition.
"This will leave only materials such as paper, card, drinks cartons, plastic tubs, pots and trays in the mixed recycling that may cost the council more to be processed than at present, which would have to be passed on to achieve cost recovery.
"Due to them being in scope for the DRS, there will also be a significant reduction in the amount of glass bottles we collect from trade customers which we currently collect separately, the income from which subsidises the collection costs at present."
