Sustainability

Having such an influential role in one of the key environmental issues, waste, we believe it is our duty to lead by example and demonstrate environmental best practice as well as sharing our knowledge to encourage the communities we serve to reduce their impact on the environment.

Zero to Landfill

In September 2011 we were able to announce that we the organisation has realised the corporate goal to achieve the target of Zero to Landfill. In the last two years we have developed and refined our recycling processes to enable us to divert all of the material we accept from landfill.

Material residues that cannot be segregated into discrete streams and/or re-constituted are carefully collected, baled and sent for Waste to Energy WtE.

Closed loop recycling

We are committed to delivering the most sustainable methods for managing waste. The environmental, carbon and financial benefits of closed-loop recycling make this a clear preferred option and we have developed closed-loop recycling systems for a number of material streams such as plastics, metals, paper/cardboard and wood.

We work closely with industry bodies such as NISP and WRAP to identify closed loop recycling processes whilst ensuring best financial returns to keep our operations viable and competitive.  

Carbon management

Fuel is one of the main contributors to the organisation’s CO2 emissions. We are therefore committed to reducing the amount of transport we need to collect, transfer and deliver municipal wastes.

Our logistics service team continuously supervise and manage our collection/delivery operation to ensure optimum efficiency of transport. Extensive planning is carried out prior to commencement of contracts to implement the most efficient schedules and routes. We are able to record and report our fuel consumption from transport and site plant/equipment to assist clients to report their carbon management performance.

We have integrated a number of innovative 3-compartment collection vehicles into our fleet which allow us to collect several different waste streams concurrently – further reducing the transport, pollution and our carbon footprint.

Our facility in Barking also has two wharfs, which can accommodate water-borne vessels and therefore providing a more sustainable method of delivery waste material (each shipload is an equivalent of 140 lorry journeys).

Environmental management

We operate an Environmental Management System (EMS) which provides a structured, systematic framework for us to identify and assess the environmental aspects of our work and develop/ implement procedures to increase the sustainability of our processes and reduce the impact we and our clients have on the immediate and wider environment.

The EMS is certificated to International Standard ISO 14001 [hyperlink to cert].

Community initiatives

We are keen to contribute and participate in community initiatives to educate and motivate communities and end-users how best to contribute to the recycling process. Our contributions to local communities can include:

• Tours of our facilities

• Recycling seminars and presentations

• Promotional campaigns

• Engagement and outreach programmes