Charities at risk as councils begin charging for clothing recycling bins 1

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 31 May 2011

Charities are being priced out of hosting clothing collection bins as some councils begin to charge for rental of the sites in an effort to raise revenue.

A number of charities, including Traid, Scope and the British Heart Foundation, will have to remove their clothing recycling bins in Hertfordshire and Northumberland, which were traditionally subject to no rent from councils, after the councils opted to allow for-profit companies to bid to operate the sites for a fee.

Hertfordshire County Council recently put out a tender to run the collection bank sites and although both charities and companies were able to bid, the contract eventually went to a private company, Cookstown, in a contract which will net the council £2.4m over the next three years.

Likewise, Northumberland Council has offered its sites to commercial companies.

A statement from Hertfordshire Council said: “The procurement process was open, fair and conducted according to the relevant local government procurement procedures. All charities involved in the provision of textile banks prior to the tender where invited to take part in the process. Two charities took part but were unsuccessful.”

“We’ve got a responsibility to taxpayers to get the most value for money,” the spokesman told CivilSociety.co.uk.

Traid was one of the charities which bid and failed to win the Hertfordshire contract. The charity fears that the Hertfordshire and Northumberland decisions could be the beginning of a trend in cash-strapped councils opting for fee-paying collections. It said it stands to lose “a significant number of its local authority sites… due to the proliferation of commercial clothes collection companies offering payments to local authorities per tonne of textiles collected”.

Traid’s chief executive Maria Chenoweth-Casey said: “The environmental and social returns of working with a charity are powerful and the continued support of councils is essential to Traid’s work to reduce landfill, improve the environment, deliver waste education and raise funds to fight global poverty.”

Directory: British Heart Foundation | Scope

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Peter Munro
3 Jun 2011

I think this is a very short-sighted strategy by the Councils concerned.

Lots of people make the effort and drive the extra miles to put clothing into recycling bins because they are confident that the money raised will go to charity; but in these areas they'll know that the money goes to commerce, so they'll dump clothes in their domestic refuse bin, and it'll increase landfill.

Although the council earns on one side, it'll lose money on the other side in paying landfill tax, and it'll make it more difficult for those councils to hit the government recycling target, and then those councils will be fined.

I'm glad it's not my council.

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