Recycling revolution as businesses get on board

A combination of the Landfill Tax escalator, growth in commercial recycling capacity and growing recognition of the importance of sustainability means recycling is rapidly moving up the business agenda. So what’s new?

The biggest factor is landfill tax - £56 per tonne and set to increase £8 a year. Larger businesses always had the benefit of volume to make recycling collections more viable.  Now with many SMEs recognising that that recycling can be as cost effective as landfill as well as improving their environmental performance we have reached a tipping point.

We have anticipated this in terms of both new infrastructure and collection services. Our commercial Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) network is growing with two new sites in Basildon and Birmingham due to open in 2011. These will add to the commercial MRFs in Cardiff and Castle Donington (near Derby) as well as our large network of municipal MRFs.

Castle Donington was a landmark opening for us providing a model for our expansion. The £500,000 facility can handle up to 30,000 tonnes of recyclable materials each year and local businesses welcomed our co-mingled collection service for card, paper, plastic and cans 

Previously too little consideration has been given to the disposal of a multitude of different waste products produced by businesses. Volumes in recycling tend to be focused with the paper and cardboard, however we are interested in co-mingled (including plastic and cans) with glass collected separately.

At this time food waste is still in its infancy but it is an important area of development as our recent initiatives with Whitbread  have shown. And our network of six Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF) for residual waste means Zero Waste to Landfill is also available as part of our integrated waste management strategy.

Another differentiator is our ability to add value by working across the board to support and tailor services to all business needs. We have introduced a comprehensive range of solutions, including waste audits, expert help with promoting recycling within your organisation, legislative compliance services and reliable, efficient collection of a wide variety of recyclables.

Helping businesses to get their staff to recycle more is another major development. In the work place we have created Recycle for Life, a scheme to encourage employees in the work place to recycle more. The Recycle for Life scheme uses a range of stylish creatives to help inspire and inform employees about the recycling scheme in place. The inspirational side of the scheme explains to employees the benefits around following these processes and what happens once they throw their items away. Information is displayed through posters and PC desktop to explain how to recycle and also in the appropriate disposal locations.

Veolia is leading the way to support businesses adapt to the recycling revolution and is set up to meet this rising demand. For more information about how Veolia can help your business manage waste call 0845 6060 460.

Paul Jackson, Operations Director - Commercial Services

1. 18 May 2011

   by Paul Jackson
   Veolia Environmental Services

   I’m pleased to hear you have signed up to our co-mingled service. It does cost less than general waste overall to treat, although any service charge is made up of a transport and treatment element.
   
   Recently the treatment element was landfill and therefore a cost. As we move forward the transport cost of collecting recyclables can be higher as the route productivity is lower – this will improve as more customers take up recycling and this productivity improves.
   
   This transport cost increase is offset by the reduction in treatment cost – from landfill to MRF. If the material is clean then a value can and will be derived.
   
   In the early stages of all customers moving to recycling there can be contamination in the recycling load – this affects the quality of the material and therefore doesn’t attract the rebate value of clean material.
   
   The vehicle used to provide this service is a multi pick up vehicle and therefore it requires all customers to recycle to the highest standard before maximum value can be obtained – so we can pass this back to our customers.
   
   You might have seen our recycle for life educational materials - visit http://www.veoliaenvironmentalservices.co.uk/recycleforlife for more info on how we want to work together with our customers to improve recycling quality to pass these benefits on!

2. 18 May 2011

   by shaun noble
   nottingham
   I have recently taken advantage of the co-mingled recycling bins, this is great as it has made employees more aware of waste at work, the cost of this service is less than my general waste ( which has recently increased due to landfill tax) But surely this should be a greatly reduced cost, i.e cost of bin only as having this on site has decreased the amount sent to landfill, veolia then gains financially from this waste, I may be wrong but it seems that recycling companys benefit more from extra effort being put in by us without passing this on

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