WRAP’s fourth annual Gate Fees Report has shown that gates fees at MRFs and anaerobic digestion facilities are now lower than last year.
The gate fee for all MRFs was a median of £15, but some organisations were getting up to £36 paid to them by the MRF for the material, while some were paying up to £85. For contracts that started in 2010 or later, the median gate fee was £4 with some organisations receiving a payment up to £30 for the materials from the MRF, while some were paying a gate fee of up to £63.
WRAP director of the Closed Loop Economy Marcus Gover said: “The message in the Gate Fees Report is that there are cost-effective waste management options other than landfill which also deliver greater environmental benefits.
“We have seen a substantial decrease in MRF gate fees since the previous report, with some local authorities telling us that they are now receiving revenues of up to £15 to £20 per tonne for their recovered materials, rather than being charged gate fees. This reflects the additional capacity in the market and the buoyant recovered material prices.
“Another notable change compared with last year’s report is that the median gate fee for AD has dropped considerably by around £13 per tonne.
“Indeed, several operators questioned indicated that they felt that AD gate fees might fall further. However, as the AD industry is still relatively young, this finding is based on quite a small sample and so does need to be treated with some caution.”
One of the key findings of the report is that for organics treatment facilities, open-air windrow median gate fees are lower than those for anaerobic digestion and in-vessel composting. In turn, these are lower than median gate fees at mechanical biological treatment facilities.
Another is that the median AD gate fee for separate food waste is lower than the median in-vessel composting gate fee for food only, but is comparable to the in-vessel gate fee for mixed food and garden waste.
While another finding is that landfill gate fees including landfill tax are broadly comparable to gate fees for both energy from waste and mechanical biological treatment.
For an AD facility, the median gate fee was £43 within a range of £36 to £64. Open air windrow was £24 within a range of £6 to £51, while in-vessel composting of food and garden waste had a median gate fee of £43 in a range of £29 to £82.
For energy from waste plants, those that were built prior to the year 2000 had a median gate fee of £54 within a range of £35 to £79, while those build after 2000 charged a median gate fee of £73 with a range of £54 to £97. MBT had a median gate fee of £84 within a range of £57 to £100, while landfill and tax was a median of £76.
