The SME Recycling Programme
SMEs can find it difficult to access appropriate recycling services and the result is that much of the waste they generate ends up in landfill. The reasons for this include:
- SMEs generate relatively low volumes of waste individually and therefore it can be difficult to collect the material on a commercial basis.
- SMEs can lack the internal resources and capacity to establish and manage a recycling service within their workplace, often due to there not being a dedicated member of staff responsible for environmental management initiatives.
- The way in which SMEs currently pay for waste management services can make it difficult to identify a clear financial incentive to recycling.
- SMEs can have a lack of space to collect and store materials for recycling, which can be a barrier to registering with recycling services that have a relatively high minimum collection quantity.
- A lack of recycling service provision appropriate for SMEs – many services currently tend to focus on larger producers of waste.
The WRAP SME recycling programme aims to develop and support recycling services to overcome these barriers; by making recycling at work easy, convenient and cost effective for businesses.
