Waste

When disposing of waste, organisations must confirm that they have applied the waste hierarchy – reduce, reuse, and recycle. Is your organisation doing this?

Not only will implementing the hierarchy improve your green credentials to your customers and reduce your carbon footprint, but they could also reduce costs. Less waste means less lower waste disposal costs, and it is also usually cheaper to have recycling collections than non-recycling ones, so the more you recycle, the lower your waste disposal costs will be.

How to reduce your organisation’s waste

• Look at the products you purchase for use or to sell – can you or your customers recycle or repair them?
• Avoid single-use items
• Make your office paperless
• Set the office printer to print double-sided and setting a password on the printer to avoid unnecessary printing
• Donate unwanted items that could still be used by someone else – local organisations like Mer-IT will take furniture, electronics, or IT equipment
• Consider whether your organisation could operate in a circular economy way

How to maximise recycling 

• Make sure you have assigned bins for all the recyclable products you usually have at your premises. Some materials can be collected together, but others may need to have separate bins. You can even set up recycling schemes for things like crisp packets through Terracycle.
• Have a food waste bin for things like lunch leftovers, banana skins and coffee grounds.

Organisations must use a registered waste carrier to dispose of waste/recycling. If you do not dispose of your waste legally, you could be fined up to £50,000 or even be imprisoned. More information is available on the government website and you can check your waste carrier on the Public Register.

Islington Council’s commercial waste team provide food waste and mixed dry recycling collections, as well as general refuse collections. Recycling services are free for charities and places of worship.