In 2017, Shaftesbury PLC started working with Westminster City Council Commercial Waste Services on improving waste management and increasing recycling rate for the Carnaby Estate. The iconic shopping and dining destination in Soho, comprising 160 businesses as well as office and residential premises, faced a number of challenges but were able to overcome these by adopting our recycling initiatives.
Download the full case study for more information
As a result, the recycling rate of centralised bin rooms increased by 75% and the number of tenants using the waste consolidation scheme increased to 55%.
“We are dedicated to our vision of a more sustainable future for the West End and are pleased to be partnering with Commercial Waste Services in working toward this goal”, Vaughan Williams, Head of Group Property & Facilities Management.
To discover how we improved their recycling rate and enhance their commercial waste management, read the full case study here.
This article will explain how some of the solutions we provided to the specific waste management challenges on the Carnaby Estate could help you significantly increase your recycling rates and consolidate your waste collections.
Understand and improve recycling habits for your estate
Gaining visibility over your waste management process is an essential first step when looking to improve your estate’s overall waste performance and recycling rate. It will help answer key questions such as: ‘Are your tenants recycling responsibly?’, ‘Where are the opportunities for improvement?’ and ‘What are you doing successfully?’.
When Shaftesbury PLC approached us, gaining visibility was the first action Commercial Waste services delivered.
Solution: We conducted an in-depth waste audit to help both the client, and us, understand the tenants’ waste management practices. Our audits provided key insights into tenant behaviour and the site’s recycling levels which enabled us to recommend tailored solutions.
Setting up an effective recycling system
Many businesses in Westminster use mixed recycling services, rather than single-stream recycling services. This is not an ideal solution because mixed recycling can significantly limit the effectiveness of your waste management setup.
Collecting all recyclable materials together means the waste needs to be sorted at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) before each material can be transported to recyclers and turned into new products. Mixed recycling not only travels further but is more likely to be contaminated and therefore not suitable for recycling.
Solution: We recommend implementing segregated waste streams for different recyclable materials. We can collect many segregated recycling streams, including paper and cardboard, glass, food waste and coffee cups.
As well as being on-hand to collect and dispose of your recyclable waste effectively, we can also provide training for tenants and bin room operatives. Our bespoke training helps raise awareness of the importance of recycling and demonstrates a variety of best practices to get your tenants on-side and committed to recycling responsibly.
Contact us for more information and to find out how we can help.
Waste monitoring strategies and best practice
Once an effective waste management system is set up, it is important to monitor how tenants use the bin rooms. Studies suggest that people are ‘better behaved’ and act more responsibly when they are being watched.
Solution: Introducing bin room operation hours enables its operatives to monitor tenant usage and ensure waste is segregated correctly. The performance data we collected from the Carnaby Estate shows how this small step can contribute towards a significant increase in recycling rates and reduction in contamination.
Pedestrianised sites and waste collections
Many estates have pedestrianised areas that can make it difficult to carry out routine waste collections. This is the challenge that Carnaby Estate faced – they needed a space-efficient solution that would enable them to achieve their waste reduction targets.
If, like Carnaby Street, areas of your estate cannot be accessed by waste collection vehicles, this could be negatively impacting the efficiency of your waste management.
Solution: We offer a bespoke service using small electric buggies, called Goupils, that are able to enter pedestrianised areas and collect bagged waste. This waste is taken to a nearby waste consolidation site for a quality check and compaction, after which it is collected by larger collection trucks and taken away for treatment or recycling. This method enabled us to reduce vehicle movements by 75% on the Carnaby Estate, avoiding collections taking place during busy periods with high footfall.
Recycling responsibly and improving environmental impact
There’s a lot you can gain by recycling responsibly:
- reduce your overall waste management costs
- reduce your company’s impact on the environment
- improve the way your tenants handle their waste.
We offer high-quality recycling services to help improve recycling rates at business estates across Westminster. Whatever waste management challenges you are facing, we can help set up and implement an easy-to-use, cost-effective and green solution that will address your recycling collection needs and reduce your impact on the environment.
The environmental impact of our services is very important to us. As a result, we have not sent waste to landfill for many years. Instead, we locally treat segregated recycling and generate low-carbon renewable energy from non-recyclable waste. Using local waste-treatment facilities minimises the distance that waste has to travel to be treated. Fewer waste miles means cleaner air, lower carbon emissions and less congestion on London’s busy roads.
To further tackle London’s air pollution problem, we have also invested in a state-of-the-art, award-winning electric refuse collection fleet, maximising the efficiency of our collections and minimising our environmental impact.
In addition to reducing waste miles and using electric vehicles, we also strive to consolidate waste collections in order to reduce congestion and pollution. Our thriving partnership with Shaftesbury PLC has successfully reduced waste collection vehicle movements by more than 300 in the Carnaby area each week.
We always tailor our services to meet our client needs. For example, we adjusted our collection days to ensure that Carnaby Estate’s bin stores were not overwhelmed with waste at weekends when the site is busy.
Imagine how much more of a difference you could make by doing the same.
Looking to implement effective recycling and waste management services for your business? Click the image below to request a quote for a service contract today.
