In a climate of sharply rising costs for sending waste to landfill, Tim Price discusses the challenge for facilities managers of achieving ‘zero waste’
Commercial waste accounts for around six per cent of waste in the UK — around 25 million tonnes a year. Now that reducing waste is a pillar of the government’s environmental strategy, businesses are increasingly setting targets for their own performance. For many, this has crystallised into a quest for the holy grail — zero waste.
Many businesses have achieved major reductions in waste over the past ten years, with paper recycling bins common in almost all offices. However, more often than not, that is the extent of the recycling facilities. Many other materials, such as cartridges, cardboard, plastics, metals or even WEEE (waste electricals) end up in the bin, heading straight to landfill.
Businesses are now recognising the importance — be it from a financial or reputational perspective — of reducing waste. The costs of sending waste directly to landfill are growing, following increases in gate fees and the Landfill Tax Escalator, which the current government lengthened to run to 2014. In just three years’ time, the cost of sending mixed waste to landfill will have reached £80 per tonne.
There is no doubt that increased cost implications have helped to change behaviour when it comes to what is thrown away. Overall quantities of waste recorded at landfill sites registered for the tax fell from around 96 million tonnes in 1997-98 to around 72 million tonnes in 2005-06, a reduction of around 25 per cent.
With businesses increasingly looking to achieve the target of sending zero waste to landfill, it places a great deal of pressure on facilities managers to find a solution. But with this comes a number of challenges — from engaging staff and achieving participation, through to justifying different disposal options that may at first glance appear more expensive than landfill.
Waste interrogation
When looking to make a significant impact on the amount of waste being generated, a key activity FMs can undertake is what DS Smith Recycling calls a ‘waste interrogation’. During this process, the waste produced is analysed in order to understand the reality of the range of materials that a company produces, alongside a realistic assessment of quantities. This activity often presents a few surprises — that a certain waste stream is much larger than thought, for instance.
From this interrogation, FMs can then identify the best solution. There are numerous ways to be more sustainable with waste disposal. One of the simplest is to use a waste management partner that offers sustainable alternatives to landfill. They can take mixed waste and process it through a materials recycling facility where it is separated into different materials, which are then sent to specialist recyclers. This is excellent for organisations that are short of space or would find segregating waste at source difficult.
However, this process has its limitations and can downgrade the quality of some materials, making recycling difficult and seeing them ultimately left with no other option than landfill.
Paper is the perfect example of this — being mixed with other materials can damage the fibres. If covered in food it is useless as it can’t be cleaned and if it has been thrown away with wet materials, perhaps washed soup tins for instance, the water elongates the fibres, which means they can only be recycled into lower-grade papers. The impact of mixed-waste recycling is complex and often forgotten when it comes to choosing recycling options.
Sourcing success
The best way for an organisation to maximise the recycling of its waste and therefore increase the value that its recyclate offers, is by separating it at source. This can be achieved by having different bins for the larger volumes of materials that an organisation produces. The next step would be to find specific, local recycling options through a waste management partner, which can source such companies. This will help to boost environmental performance and, importantly, it can also save costs.
Making simple, practical changes in your processes can help improve environmental credentials. If you consider that food is the component that makes waste smell, then by separating it from other materials, collections of inert materials, such as plastic and cardboard, can be reduced — perhaps from weekly to monthly.
There are a number of different recycling processes that businesses can choose from. Using several different recycling options can enable an organisation’s waste to be maximised as a long term resource. In terms of renewable energy, new paper products, recycled material for new products, or even fertiliser to grow crops, one business’ waste is another’s gold.
One of the more difficult challenges is gaining staff buy-in, particularly if new processes require perceived additional work. Key to this has to be open communication and engagement across the business. Everyone should be aware of the part they play, the wider businesses objectives, why it’s important they change existing practices and the benefits that this change will have on the environment.
As environmental targets and policies continue to get more stringent, businesses will have to respond. Finding more sustainable options for their waste is an important way to improve environmental impact. The benefits are wide reaching, both in terms of profitability, corporate reputation and the environment and facilities managers can play an important role in operating to waste management best practice to deliver the best sustainable processes.
