Significant rises in the costs of fuel are likely to be reflected in higher transport costs and surcharges as waste contractors attempt to pass on the hikes they're experiencing

according to waste expert Lee Petts of Remsol Limited

Fuel prices have risen steadily over the past 12 months, from 92.15 pence per litre (ppl) for bulk diesel in January 2010 to 106.35 ppl as of January 28 2011, according to the Freight Transport Association (FTA).

This increase in fuel costs was compounded by a rise in VAT on January 4 2011, which added an average 0.76p to every litre of petrol.

And the outlook doesn't appear much better throughout 2011, with industry analysts predicting that oil and petroleum prices will continue to increase.

Some waste disposal contractors and specialist haulage companies are already starting to pass-on these higher operating costs to waste producers, who can expect to shoulder this burden more in the future.

The good news is there are a number of ways in which businesses and other organisations can limit their exposure to these escalating costs...

Waste minimisation

Cutting the amount of waste you produce in your business is an obvious place to start - less waste means less collections and a corresponding fall in transport costs.  Eliminating and reducing waste at source can also boost profitability in other ways, and so is definitely worth exploring.  Conventional waste minimisation techniques, coupled with Lean Manufacturing and Operational Excellence tools will help to find those hidden savings.

Better collection scheduling

It may be that your waste collections could be better scheduled to fit-in with others performed locally by your waste disposal contractor to make it less expensive for them to service your waste - reducing "shared-time" between waste collections by grouping them geographically can significantly cut journey distances and costs, which should be reflected in lower charges for you.  This is true for collections of hazardous waste in drums and IBCs as well as dry "general" and mixed recyclable wastes.

Explore different waste collection systems

If you have your waste collected in single-trip skips, it may be worth exploring whether or not your waste could be better suited to collection by Front End Loader (FEL) instead, which will see your lightweight wastes compacted en-route along with compatible wastes from many other sources.  Aggregating and compacting these wastes leads to substantially lower haulage costs.

What about compacting or baling your waste at source?

If you produce very large quantities of suitable wastes, such as paper and card, on-site compaction or baling could also help to significantly cut the frequency of waste collections and help insulate you from rising transport costs linked to fuel hikes - but remember, acquiring and running the equipment can be costly so make sure you take appropriate advice before making any capital investments or entering into long-term rental agreements.

Remsol can help you avoid increases in the costs of transporting your wastes for disposal or recycling, talk to us today - we're experts when it comes to finding ways to avoid unnecessary expenditure.  Call us on 0845 123 2544 to arrange an informal, no-obligation and totally free consultation.