Blog:

Setting sustainable standards to reduce waste

June 21, 2019

We love to hear that the public and businesses alike are making small changes to help the planet, whether it’s recycling efficiently or shopping with reusable bags. As a leading manufacturer in the waste industry, we aim to be as eco-friendly as we can be to help the environment.

After unveiling the staggering amount of coffee cups that aren’t recycled in 2017, chef and environmentalist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been on a mission to find out why we accumulate so much waste. Cup recycling is now trending, and more organisations are doing their bit to reduce coffee cup waste by encouraging the use of reusable cups or introducing innovative recycling bins to ensure the cups get recycled properly. That’s where we came in, introducing a range of bins to separate the lids and cups, as well as dispose of any liquid that could prevent the cup from being recycled.

Our Cup Recycling Units are shaped like takeaway cups, manufactured from galvanised steel with rolled circular bodies and vacuum formed durable plastic lids. The Eco Cup Recycling Unit has three separate compartments to collect cups, lids and liquid waste. If you’re looking for a larger unit, our Deluxe Cup Recycling Unit has six cup collection holes and a smaller slot for lids – this bin has the capacity to collect over 430 cups. We’re also in the process of designing a polythene cup bin to meet customer demand!

Gatwick Airport have recently announced a cup recycling scheme, whereby passengers will be given the option to borrow a reusable cup whilst at the airport. Once they’re ready to board the flight, there will be designated cup drop off points to collect these cups, which are washed and sterilised before being reused.

As a country, we’ve become mindful on how much plastic we use and come across. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is currently co-presenting the #WarOnPlastic series with Anita Rani to investigate plastic pollution. This shocking series has revealed the truth on products that we believe to be ‘plastic free’ such as wet wipes, as well as the mountain of plastic bottles and packaging that gets sent to landfill.

We conducted a test to see how many plastic bottles we could collect in our 60 litre Box Cycle Recycling Bin, take a look at the video! Did you know that you only need to recycle ten plastic bottles to produce enough plastic fibres to make a new t-shirt?

Incorporate the collection of plastic bottles into your recycling scheme with our Box Cycle Double. A lightweight recycling unit that can collect two waste streams, manufactured from galvanised steel or vacuum formed plastic with transparent polythene bodies as standard. We recommend choosing a silver body for the collection of general waste or food waste, this prevents the contents from being seen by users.

Supermarkets are also doing their bit to reduce their amounts of plastic waste. In April 2018, all major supermarkets signed up for the ‘UK Plastics Pact’ established by WRAP, which is a collaborative initiative to create a circular economy for plastics and brings together businesses from across the entire plastics value chain.

One of the main issues for supermarkets is to reduce or eradicate plastic carrier bags from their checkouts, as these single use bags take up to 500 years to decompose.

Sainsburys have become the first UK supermarket to remove their small plastic bags for loose fruit, vegetables and bakery goods. This alone will reduce their plastic output by 489 tonnes and aims to encourage customers to bring their own bags to collect loose items with the idea to introduce paper bags later on this year. Morrisons have recently introduced paper bags at their checkouts in a bid to reduce further plastic waste in-store.

Waitrose have unveiled a ‘packaging free’ trial this month in one of its Oxford stores. This encourages customers to bring their own containers for groceries such as fruit and vegetables, wine, pasta, rice and cleaning materials. It’s also trialling a pick and mix frozen fruit section which will be cheaper than a packaged alternative.

As you can tell, we’re passionate about recycling and we believe that by providing adequate and innovative recycling units, we can help to increase recycling rates in the UK.

Why restrict recycling to internal locations? Our range of external recycling bins can be manufactured from galvanised steel or glass fibre composite, depending on the finish you require and the environment that the bin will be located.

The Never Rust Recycling Bin is a popular choice with councils and businesses due to its simplicity and durability. Based on the same design as its metal counterpart, the Barnsley Bin, this unit is manufactured using an exclusive technique established by Wybone, using a lightweight wooden carcass which is encapsulated in 20mm high impact strength, glass fibre composite. This unit is not impacted by adverse weather conditions and due to the materials used, offers total corrosion resistance which means it can be placed in roadside or coastal locations. A perspex plate displaying the waste stream artwork can also be fitted to the front to further encourage recycling.

Most councils now collect food waste, so we’ve manufactured a large capacity recycling bin for communal collections. The Food Waste Wheelie Bin Cover has been designed to make the disposal of food waste simple and hygienic. A lift up flap on the lid helps to contain unwanted odours, with a stainless steel handle and soft closing lid that gives the user enough time to put their food waste safely in the bin as the lid closes gradually.

This bin can be used for more than just food waste collections, the capacity makes it ideal for large recycling collections. We designed bespoke units for Resource London – who will be using these units to collect dry recyclables in communal areas across London.

If you’re not sure what products you need to increase your recycling collections; our team will be more than happy to help. For more information on our range of products, feel free to give us a call on 01226 352333 or send us an email to [email protected]