Landfill taxes and rising transport costs are combining to create a headache for facilities managers.
Since the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 increased the financial burden of sending waste to landfill, waste management services have proven to be a significant issue. But to what extent is a ‘zero waste to landfill’ policy practical, and how can FM help to achieve it?
Joshua Sharman is the FM sector key account manager for Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the not-for-profit organisation set up to help businesses reduce waste.
“The opportunity really lies in shifting the focus from a zero-waste to landfill strategy to that of improving resource management to prevent waste. Focusing on ‘zero waste’ can lead to an over-emphasis on diversion from landfill. Prevention, which sits at the top of the waste hierarchy, saves the most money and provides the greatest environmental benefits.”
By optimising resource management, it seems, FMs can capitalise on several inviting opportunities. They may be able to glean new knowledge as to whether operations can be set up to help stop waste from arising in the first place. This is where the greatest financial benefits lie.
Similarly, it can involve working with suppliers to enable better monitoring of resource usage and allow re-manufacture, re-use and re-deployment opportunities to be considered above and beyond diversion from landfill.
Adrian Shuker is OCS’ sustainability director. He says that for any ‘zero waste to landfill policy’, the starting point is in understanding what type of waste you’re handling. “You need to define the boundaries,” says Shuker.
“Is it ‘zero landfill’ just for cardboard and paper? If so, that’s one kind of model. Or are you going to extend the definition to include office furniture and IT equipment? In this case, that requires more work.”
OCS, through its OCS WasteLine arm, recently won a contract to supply waste management services to the Harvey Shopping Centre in Harlow, Essex. Here, the contractor will provide the centre with all of its waste services through a zero-landfill solution. Waste, such as card, plastic, coat hangers, metal, pallets and mixed recyclables will be taken directly for recycling.
All other waste will be removed from the centre where it will be sorted to extract other recyclable items. The small remainder will be disposed of through energy recovery. This means that the 333 tonnes of waste produced by the centre annually will be diverted from landfill. (Food waste segregation is planned for 2013/14.)
Company case study – BP hits its recycling targets
At its North Sea Headquarters in Dyce, BP — working with its contract catering partner Aramark — has managed to divert 68 tonnes of food waste from landfill for composting in 2011. This figure represents 22 per cent of all waste generated at the North Sea Headquarters.
The volume of waste diverted from landfill has nearly trebled from 27 per cent in 2007 to 80 per cent in November 2012. An increase in recycling has, in part, been achieved through the installation of recycling stations throughout BP headquarters for segregating waste streams.
The message has been communicated to employees by highlighting the environmental benefits associated with recycling and waste reduction. The company has also removed all small bins at desks to encourage staff to place their waste in the appropriate waste bins at the recycling stations. Transparent, biodegradable/compostable ‘BioBags’ are used to aid visual inspection in an attempt to avoid contamination of waste streams.
For the future, The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 make it the duty of “any person who produces, keeps or manages waste… to take all such measures as reasonable in the circumstances to apply the waste hierarchy”. The main measures arising from these regulations apply to the separate collection of dry recyclable waste and food waste, as well as bringing in a ban on landfilling biodegradable materials. Aramark claims to be well along the road to compliance with these regulations through advanced segregation and recycling initiatives. Fresh challenges will include the practicalities of collecting macerated waste for composting.
At the Birmingham NEC, where OCS also provides waste management, a target to achieve zero waste to landfill status has been achieved two years ahead of schedule.
But while zero waste to landfill is a great aim, it’s going to be easier to achieve in some sectors than others (retail is particularly suited). However, facilities managers use their status within organisations to promote the idea of the ‘circular economy’.
According to Sharman, “a circular economy is about moving away from buy-consume-dispose business models, which we’ve traditionally used. This is moving towards a more cyclical approach where, to keep materials flowing in the economy, we stop talking about ‘waste’ and start talking about ‘resource management’.
Sharman calls this “a subtle but important difference”, one that “stops us from seeing waste purely from a waste-management perspective and as an issue outright. It encourages us to engage in the opportunities that underlie the whole life-cycle of resource and material use at each tier of the waste hierarchy.”
Sharman suggests that while implementing a paper-recycling collection is certainly one improvement. But drawing on other FM functions like printer management, introducing duplex printing or printer pooling as standard can benefit the environment, while reducing costs significantly.
On this basis, says Sharman, FMs are already helping to support the circular economy in many ways . They are ideally placed to help UK plc make the transition towards a circular economy, given that they already work collaboratively with clients and suppliers, including waste contractors.”
This fosters a more intelligent procurement process place that considers resources in terms of the life-cycle. In turn, this allows assets to be used more effectively to service FM environments.
According to Sharman, it means “more re-manufacture, re-use and re-deployment options to be considered as an alternative to disposal at end of life.
If we consider the abundance of cleaning equipment, furniture, M&E equipment, uniforms, PPE, and stationery that is used daily to service FM environments, the scale of the opportunities quickly becomes apparent.”
WRAP has developed a model procurement toolkit in partnership with the FM sector that includes resource management plans for optimising resource use and maximising financial benefits. Download and access it for free by visiting www.wrap.org.uk/fm
