The project
The pilot project started as a cooperation between Van Moer Logistics, Waterwegen en Zeekanaal, Indaver, the Flemish Brabant inter-municipal waste association and the involved city councils in May 2014. The scheduled end was the end of 2015 but was extended to mid-2016.
The household waste gets collected in specially developed 30’ High Cube Open Top containers and transported out of the Van Moer Inland Terminal in Vilvoorde by an inland ship to the Indaver waste burning facilities in Kallo.
Evaluation
Of the 145.000 ton annual volume some 13.000 ton were transported by inland waterway from June 2014 until December 2015. According to minister Weyts the cost amounts to €19,75/ ton. When we do not take the operational costs into account, this price is not competitive compared to road haulage. When we take the social costs into account as well, the gap becomes much smaller. As such, the extra operational cost would be a mere € 0.0859 per 15 kg household waste bag, according to the minister. We can reduce the costs by further optimizing the process, for example by loading more waste per container. Even more so, theoretical simulations suggest that when the road haulage tax, which goes into effect as from April 1, the price gap between road haulage and inland waterway transport could be reduced even further by at least 6,7%.
Dennie Lockefeer, Van Moer’s CCO, says that they have developed a new prototype container with a loading capacity of 22 tons instead of the current 18 tons. This way they can transport more volume in one container and reduce the cost per ton. 75 of those containers are being constructed as we speak. A new long term contract is to be signed by April 2016.
From then on, the volumes should increase gradually until the project hits its desired operating speed. Van Moer is also a candidate for the inland waste transport in other regions.
To get the full story, please have a look at the article in Flows (in Dutch) or contact us for more information.
