London SMEs Reaping the Rewards of Recycling

Based in the heart of the city and covering all 33 London boroughs, the London Remade Recycle at Work team has helped local SMEs to divert 39 tonnes of waste from landfill in February alone – the equivalent in weight to five double decker London buses¹.

Over the last four months, London Remade has worked with 55 businesses in the capital and together they are on track to successfully divert around 779 tonnes of waste from landfill by the end of 2008 – this equates to almost 43 times the weight of Nelson’s Column².

Hara Xirou, Team Leader, London Remade Recycle at Work Team, says: “We’re delighted to have been able to work with so many SMEs and help them to find tailored solutions to suit their specific needs. These have ranged from regular collections of small amounts of general office waste right through to a one off collection of almost 90 tonnes of paper stock, which may otherwise have been sent to landfill.”

CHP Consulting

CHP Consulting, a leading supplier of software solutions and consultancy services to the finance industry, contacted the London Remade Recycle at Work team for help in sourcing a reliable recycling service.

Jo Rolland, Senior Consultant, CHP Consulting, said: “When looking for a recycling service provider within the London area we were overwhelmed with the choice available to begin with. How would we know whether the provider would meet our needs without contacting them all individually? It seemed to be a mammoth task.

“After making an enquiry with WRAP we were put in touch with the London Remade Recycle at Work Team, who were extremely quick to respond to our query and organise an on-site visit. After a 30-minute consultation they had all the information they needed to suggest providers that could meet all our recycling needs and even gave us advice on how to implement our new recycling scheme in the company.

“We’ve been running our recycling scheme with great success for a month now and we’ve already recycled almost two thirds of a tonne of waste – if we do the same each month we’ll be on target to divert over eight tonnes of waste from landfill over the course of a year which would be a fantastic achievement. We’ll certainly carry on working with the London Remade Recycle at Work team to keep reviewing and improving the way we recycle to make sure we reach that target.”

Mitchell Nicholls Chartered Surveyors

Mitchell Nicholls Chartered Surveyors approached the London Remade Recycle at Work team for advice on recycling waste paper generated at their Westminster offices.

Alan Mitchell, Senior Partner, Mitchell Nicholls, and his colleagues had wanted to recycle for some time but had struggled to find the help they needed to get started. “Many of us try to recycle as much as we can at home but just hadn’t been able to find the right contractor to advise us on how to do the same in the workplace.

“We got in touch with the London Remade Recycle at Work Team through our local Federation of Small Businesses and were delighted at the free help and advice we received on what we could recycle, how to find the right service, develop a scheme that worked for us and educate our staff on how to use it.
 
"I’d estimate we’re now recycling at least 95% of our waste, which is mainly paper so it is easy to collect and store. Recycling is just business as usual for us already - the whole team have really caught the recycling bug!”

Redactive Media Group

Gary Smith, Procurement and Operations Manager of magazine publisher, Redactive Media Group, approached the London Remade Recycle at Work Team with one of the more unusual requests received by Hara and her colleagues to date. “Following a change in paper grade by some of our magazines, we were left with reels of excess paper weighing almost 90 tonnes in storage at our premises - to put that into perspective the stock weighed the same as 50 London taxis³! We’re usually able to pass excess paper stock to other printers, but the stock in question was an odd size and we couldn’t find anyone who was able to make use of it.

“Because of the sheer amount of stock involved it was important to us that the paper was recycled and didn’t go to landfill, so it was great that Hara and the team were able to help us find a service provider who could collect it all at once.”

Sarah Downes, WRAP’s Manager English Regions, says: “Many SMEs want to recycle their waste but find it difficult to access appropriate recycling services because they think it is more costly and time consuming, and they lack information and internal human resources to get started, which means good recyclable materials are going to landfill.

“The London Remade Recycle at Work Team has been able to offer practical support to SMEs to increase and improve recycling in their business as well as raising awareness of the environmental and cost benefits. The service is only available until the end of March, so any SMEs who haven’t yet taken advantage of their expertise should get in touch as soon as possible.”

For further information on recycling at work, contact the London Recycle at Work team on tel: 020 7061 6337 or email: recycleatwork@londonremade.com.

Dedicated database

WRAP has also recently launched a dedicated online recycling database for SMEs as part of their Business Growth Programme, which can be accessed free of charge at www.recycleatwork.org.uk.

SMEs can search for local recycling service providers using a number of different factors, such as the type of material they want to recycle and whether they require a collection or drop off service.  The search also provides information on the frequency of the service and what type of collection containers are provided, to ensure SMEs find a service which is tailored specifically to their individual needs.

The database currently contains details of over 1,500 recycling service providers in England and will continue to be regularly updated after the London Remade Recycle at Work Team ceases to exist at the end of March.