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New Research - Home Composting Saves Money

Jul13Tue

By Admin (on 13/07/2010 @ 16:03:28, in News Archive, read 4176 times)

Resource Futures

In the current climate with local authorities being asked to save money in every way possible, a significant cost saving initiative is the promotion of home composting.

Straight plc, which manages the National Home Composting Framework, has commissioned research from Resource Futures into two key areas. Firstly, the future value provided by modest investments in home composting programmes and secondly into the general level of compost bin take-up to date. Both reports are available as a free download from the Straight plc website.

The research demonstrates that financial savings for local authorities associated with the provision of home composting bins are substantial. Although there are some uncertainties relating to future fuel costs, the status of separate food waste collections and Landfill Tax, the research shows that net savings for a local authority over a 'bin lifetime' of 15 years could be in the region of £190 per bin. Local authorities running a scheme in an area of 50,000 households with high bin distribution potential and providing a modest subsidy to the programme to improve up-take could expect savings of more than £600,000 over the lifetime of the bins.

"Of course, a trade-off exists between levels of bin uptake and the extent to which the public or the local authority pays for the bin," said Dr Julian Parfitt, Research and Technical Director at Resource Futures. "If a local authority subsidises the scheme more heavily, the initial costs are higher, but then the take-up will also be higher."

"In reality, no matter how the local authority approaches this trade-off, according to our research the financial benefits are clear to see. The overwhelming savings made from avoided landfill costs and gate fees outweigh any promotion, distribution or bin subsidy costs within just five years, showing there to be a clear financial case for local authorities to continue the promotion of home composting across the UK."

Following several years of heavy promotion of home compost bins by WRAP there have been suggestions that the market for home compost bins is saturated. A further report from Resource Futures investigates this claim by considering factors that influence the uptake of home-composting bins such as the presence of charged garden waste collection services, age group and home composting participation rates to predict the potential for additional home composting bin distribution across England.

Results show there are still extensive areas with a lot of immediate un-tapped potential for home composting in terms of meeting the demand for home composting bins amongst new recruits and also those households that are already composting at home. Indeed, the statistical model presented in the report offers strong evidence that the market for home composting bins, is far from saturated, particularly considering that the methodology applied is a conservative one. Even those areas that have already pushed home composting can still do more.

"It has been suggested that the home composting market is 'saturated' at 35% of households with gardens participating", added Dr Julian Parfitt, "but there is no reason why a local authority that has achieved this level of participation shouldn't now be pushing towards 45% or 50%. Home composting remains the most cost-effective way for dealing with garden waste and householders that are willing to compost at home should be given every encouragement to get involved and to remain involved."

Chief Executive of Straight plc, Jonathan Straight commented,"This research demonstrates two very powerful points which are of particular interest from a cost-saving perspective. The market is not saturated, meaning that investment in home composting continues to be worthwhile, and modest investments in home composting offer a rapid payback and ongoing return. Investing in home composting generates significant value for money."

"With a National Framework now in place, local authorities have a wide choice of compost bins and can utilise our extensive expertise in promoting and running various types of programme," he added.

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