Westminster City Council Commercial Waste Services is currently working with Wellington House, an office space building located on the Strand, to consolidate their waste collections, increase recycling rates, reduce vehicle movements and improve air quality.
Wellington House recognised that by consolidating their waste management providers, they could quickly and easily reduce the number of waste collection vehicles going down the Strand, and as a result, reduce congestion and improve air quality. Since the City Council’s waste trucks already collect from households, street cleansing operations and other businesses on a daily basis, the business case to include Wellington House for collections was an easy one to make.
How did we help?
After being approached by a responsible and concerned tenant, Westminster City Council Commercial Waste Services met with the Wellington House building manager and presented an idea to consolidate the building’s waste management and improve the recycling performance. This improvement plan included conducting waste audits on each floor of the building, identifying which recycling services were required, leading training sessions with tenants and cleaners and providing monthly waste and recycling reports to keep track of recycling rates and flag any areas for improvement.
Learn how your business can reduce, reuse, recycle and recover with our latest recycling guide.
What were the results?
Thanks to our efforts to consolidate waste services at Wellington House, between January 2018 and May 2018, there was a 66% decrease in waste and recycling vehicle movements.
By recycling more and having fewer waste collection contractors servicing the building, significant financial and environmental savings to waste collections are now being made.
Moreover, the recycling rate in the building has increased from around 25% to 45% within three months of the project’s inception.
Use our recycling performance calculator to see a full breakdown of how much waste your business produces and where improvements can be made.
Improving air quality with Westminster City Council
Toxic fumes from vehicle exhaust cause thousands of premature deaths every year and lead to young Londoners growing up with weakened lungs and suffering from asthma. High levels of air pollution have been linked to other ailments such as lung and heart disease and dementia. Prolonged exposure to poor outdoor air quality can even be more harmful than smoking tobacco.
Through the Greener City Action Plan and its vision for maintaining and improving the environment for businesses, residents and visitors, The City Council will take action to decrease air pollution in Westminster. As part of our efforts to make Westminster carbon neutral by 2040, Westminster City Council continues to work on developing an electric fleet. We expect to see a significant drop in emission levels and the initial reports of our eRCVs (electric refuse collection vehicles) suggest great reliability and performance. The objective is to turn Westminster City Council’s entire 200-vehicle collection fleet fully electric by December 2021. The City Council’s efforts here were internationally recognised at the Future Fleet Awards in January 2020 winning the ‘Most Sustainable Fleet Management Department’ award.
Consequently, Westminster City Council Commercial Waste Services (CWS) is delighted to work alongside Wellington House to consolidate their waste management providers and decrease the number of diesel-powered waste collection vehicles on the road, which greatly assists with our work toward cleaning up Westminster’s air and streets.
Take a moment to download the full case study
Learn more about our work with Wellington House and how we have helped them take the necessary steps toward waste consolidation and reducing congestion and air pollution in Westminster.
