The overall UK median gate fee for materials recycling faciliites (MRF) has risen, according to the latest WRAP annual gate fees report.
Local authorities paid a median gate fee of £10 per tonne in 2013/14 compared to £9 in the year before for using a MRF.
However, the range of MRF gate fee was wide with local authorities receiving an income (or negative gate fee) of up to £100 with some paying up to £96 per tonne.
For contracts beginning in 2013 or later, there was less revenue available with a range of a negative gate fee of £43 to a positive gate fee of £96. But this translated to a lower median of £0.
The report, Comparing the Costs of Alternative Waste Treatment Options, also found that the median gate fee for treating food waste at anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities remains steady at £40 per tonne, with a range of £19 to £63 recorded.
WRAP director Marcus Gover said: “Many factors influence individual gate fees and so costs vary substantially, both regionally and for the same types of treatment. In the case of MRFs, the range of gate fees is much broader than for other technologies and while some local authorities report receiving as much as £100 per tonne in income for their unsorted recyclate, others report paying up to £96 per tonne for their material to be sorted. This variation is related to a number of different factors which we outline in the report, which attempts to bring greater clarity to this very complex situation.”
The gate fee for mechanical biological treatment or mechanical heat treatment has increased to £84 per tonne from £76 per tonne last year.
Open air windrow composting remains at £24 per tonne as does in-vessel composting at £46 per tonne.
The median for waste wood collected at household waste recycling centres is up marginally to £32 per tonne.
For energy from waste plants, those built before 2000 remain at £58 per tonne, but for plants built after 2000 the price has increased by £6 per tonne to £96.
While the media gate fee for landfill is now at £102 per tonne with £80 per tonne coming from landfill tax.
View the full report at www.wrap.org.uk/gatefees