Expense Reduction Analysts » Waste

Reduce:Re-use:Recycle?

Keith Robinson — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:51:06 +0000

It’s about a decade ago that we were bombarded from all forms of media and Royal Mail vans to ‘Use Your Postcode’; today’s equivalent is Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.

WRAP, or Waste & Resources Action Programme, is a not for profit company backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has published its review of the year 2009/10.

Some snippets:

(i): Research highlights an estimated 18.4 million tonnes of waste is generated each year from the point of manufacture through to households. This represents total losses of £17 billion per year.

(ii): New Anaerobic Digestion facility open in Staffordshire. This facility will divert over 30,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill, reduce methane emissions from decomposing food and generate enough renewable energy to supply more than 1,300 homes.

(iii): Following a formal review of evidence, WRAP notes that kerbside sort collection schemes deliver reliable quality material at a lower net cost than single stream co-mingled collections.

(iv): An update to the 2006 ‘Environmental Benefits of Recycling’ report reviews evidence from around the world and concludes that recycling is preferable for the materials covered in the review.

On 1^st April, WRAP became the lead body for resource efficiency in England, drawing together the work of six other delivery programmes. This would not only provide a more integrated service to their customers but will save £10 million.

At the moment, as with many other pre-Coalition Government plans, where WRAP will go next is unknown.

A media release July 2010 from the Local Government Association intimated that Britain will run out of landfill space in less than eight years.

There is much that businesses can do now to impact on their waste disposal costs.

Inaction and waiting for reviews and policy decisions will simply see good money following bad.

Care Homes Guide: Reducing Medical & Waste Costs

Glenncotter — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:11:59 +0000

At Expense Reduction Analysts we are frequently asked to review the waste and medical supplies costs associated with Nursing and Care Homes.

In many instances we find the staff and management are under pressure to deliver the best possible service to the people for whom they care, whilst operating under increasing levels of scrutiny and legislation.

We have therefore put together our top 10 tips for each area to help you drive down costs and improve your bottom line profit.

Government to review waste handling

Keith Robinson — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:37:20 +0000

The Budget has been and gone. The focus was on debt reduction, a review of costs and questioning about how and where further savings maybe generated. Overall an exercise which organisations of all types and sizes will be familiar with.

The Coalition published ‘Our programme for government’ and the Coalition’s Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman gave a key note speech at this year’s Futuresource event. What can we learn from these two sources that may give an indication of the Coalition’s thinking about the handling of commercial waste and any additional cost or cash incentive to organisations?

First, the Coalition document; out of eighteen bullet points under Environment, Food and Rural Affairs one alludes to waste. This says that the government will work towards a ‘zero waste’ economy and encourage councils to reward people for recycling.

Caroline Spelman expanded on this brief observation in her speech when she said: The Department of Energy & Climate Change will be encouraged to send an increased volume of biodegradable waste through anaerobic digestion. The reference to ‘zero waste’ is explained as an attitude whereby society fully values all resources with the aim that in time the minimum volume possible is sent to landfill.

Making this speech in a business setting, it was perhaps a surprise that most of its content focussed on consumers and households, or was it? The emphasis was about communicating with people and explaining to them what happened to their waste once it had been collected. Examples of initiatives taken by local authorities were cited and stress was placed on the Coalition’s first announcement; ‘the rejection of the very concept of bin taxes’.

Businesses did feature, however perhaps more as a side comment and closely tied to consumer behaviour. Manufacturers and businesses were asked to redouble their efforts to drive down waste generated by production processes and packaging; to quote on the latter ‘some of which is, if we’re honest, actually marketing material’.

Specific reference to organisations were to the effect that landfill is expensive and is a double burden when recyclable materials were disposed of by that route. Whilst no figures were quoted Caroline Spelman did say that more waste was generated by organisations than by households. For households we are told that they now recycle over 38% whilst ten years ago it was 9% and waste to landfill has reduced by over a third since 2001 with recycling from green waste increasing by 13% in the past decade.

Can we assume that incentives to recycle that are clearly on the agenda for households will be extended to organisations? Perhaps, but not yet.

Caroline Spelman took the opportunity of this platform to announce ‘we (the Coalition) are starting a review of all existing waste policies. It will be a fundamental review. It will look at every aspect of waste policy and waste management delivery including household and business waste and recycling services. The results will be used to ensure that we are ready and able to deliver on our ambitions for a zero waste economy.’

The aim is to produce preliminary findings by Spring 2011.

Effective Cost Reduction – Waste Management: opportunities in a rising market

Julia Goodfellow-Smith — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:03:35 +0000

Any company producing waste is subject to a plethora of ever-increasing regulations, causing costs to rise year on year. How can your business manage waste disposal costs in this sort of environment?

First of all, find out what regulations are applicable to your organisation – you don’t want to be hit with a fine for non-compliance. Did you know that all waste has to be accompanied by a waste transfer note (WTN), that it’s your responsibility to produce the WTN (although most carriers will produce one for you) and that you must keep copies for two years? Did you know that all waste producers are required to “pre-treat” some of your waste before it goes to landfill? Do you know what “pre-treatment” entails?

Once you know how regulations affect your organisation, work out what waste you have. A good start is to walk around your premises and look to see what is in the bins. It really is worth a look, because the contents are not always as expected.

Armed with this information, consider whether you can change your processes to reduce the amount of waste produced. This is likely to reduce the volume of materials purchased as well as waste disposal costs, resulting in a cost reduction double-whammy. If you reduce the amount of packaging you use, it could also reduce your requirement to purchase PRNs – a cost reduction hat trick!

Then consider what elements of your waste can be recycled. Recycling your waste doesn’t necessarily cost more than just sending it to landfill, and will become ever more economically viable as the Landfill Tax continues to increase. Much waste that is recycled also has a value, so recycling can even result in income for your company – even better than cost reduction. Your duty of care obligations can also met by pre-treating your waste in this way.

So, there are plenty of opportunities to reduce cost in waste disposal. If you are unsure of how to tackle this on your own, or would like some expert help, please do get in touch.