Councils Warned Against Tesco Agreement

18 July 2011

Councils have been warned not to pay Tesco for tonnage data from recycling banks and to not enter into agreements with the retail giant regarding the banks that are now being managed outside its stores

The controversial issue of whether councils should pay for tonnage data to count towards their recycling figures was is still under debate after Tesco installed a single contractor to manage the sites - DS Smith Recycling.

Andrew Craig, principal policy officer at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), made the call after revealing that some councils had been told by Tesco that they did not have to pay for the figures.

"We did have a problem with Tesco demanding the local authority help to pay towards the cost of the recycling facilities if they wanted to get the information for the tonnage collected at it,"Craig explained.

"Tesco have said they have dropped this requirement with a couple of councils and if authorities haven't signed an agreement involving them paying for recycling data they shouldn't have to."

"I want to make sure authorities aren't placed in a position where they have to make a payment on an agreement," he added.

A spokeswoman for Tesco insisted that the supermarket was providing its own banks as a trial and said it was "confident" that no one, including councils, would "lose out".

No More Targets

"Some authorities seem to have a mindset where they think they need the tonnage for their recycling figures but with no more recycling targets I wonder if some local authorities are governed by something they no longer have to prove," Craig admitted.

"If the recycling centre isn't in partnership with the authority, the retail outlet could be said to be in competition with the authorities for material," he said. "It's generally recognised that, because those recycling centres are the best ones and most used, and therefore most financially efficient to collect from, then the authority loses money because the ones they run are the least efficient."

Darrel Moore

Visit www.larac.org.uk