Residents of Birmingham produce in the region of 550,000 tonnes of domestic rubbish each year. This means that every 60 minutes enough rubbish is produced to fill your local swimming pool. In the UK, the majority of our waste is put straight into landfill sites, but continuing to dispose of our rubbish in this way is putting increasing pressure on our environment. Available landfill space is running out fast and there are now government targets for recycling and recovery that must be met.

Veolia ES Birmingham Ltd, set up in 1993 as Tyseley Waste Disposal Ltd, has a 25-year integrated waste management contract with Birmingham City Council, to operate as its strategic partner to deal with waste arisings, maximise recycling and produce Energy Recovery. We aim to assist Birmingham to maintain its top performance in terms of landfill avoidance, to provide the infrastructure and services necessary to improve on the current recycling rate of 17% and to exceed the recycling target of 35% by the year 2011/12.