News & Events / ...

Do you know how much waste your business produces? Research shows that many UK businesses aren’t fully aware of the extent of their rubbish. Government figures reveal that the UK generated 2.26 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste that year. But sustainability consultancy Eunomia suggested that the true number could have been 3.5 million tonnes, or 50% more than the government’s estimate.

The problem with not knowing how much waste your company creates means you don’t know how much it costs to dispose of it. In other words, your waste management has a big impact on your bottom line, and you could be leaving huge amounts of money on the table.

Shoring up your waste management practices to include sustainable recycling could save you both time and money. To show you how, we’ve outlined the three most common waste management processes and demonstrate how they inevitably impact your bottom line.

Why Not Just Put Everything in the Skip?

For many, using a general waste bin or skip offers an irresistible simplicity to waste management. If everything goes in the skip, then you don’t need to pay to sort it and you can organise collections simply.

In some cases, you may not even realise how much of what’s in your skip can be recycled.

For example, in a report on London’s use of landfills, the Environment Agency found that a substantial proportion of landfill waste was paper and board from commercial and industrial uses. Plastic and glass also play a huge role.

Tossing everything into a skip not only requires more bins, which can cost as much as £40 per week per skip. It also costs you more in landfill taxes: these taxes increased again to £94.15 per tonne in 2020. Both of these expenditures are avoidable because not only is a huge amount of commercial waste recyclable, but you could even earn money by recycling your waste rather than paying to dump it into one of the UK’s landfills.

Dry Mixed Recycling Bins Offer Mixed Benefits

It’s now common practice for waste management companies to provide mixed dry recycling bins alongside general waste bins. These allow you to recycle and they give your waste management firm a new stream of income because they bring it to a facility, bale it, and sell it on to companies who repurpose the materials.

These recycling skips tend to create problems for small businesses. Not only do your staff need to sort the waste, but they spend time breaking down cardboard and stomping plastics to ensure you make the most of the bin space.

Using a dry mixed recycling bin can somehow cost more money than hauling everything to the landfill, but the answer isn’t to revert back to throwing everything into the skip.

Recycling Waste Balers Can Earn You Money

There’s a way around spending the end of shift breaking down boxes or simply paying the extra landfill tax. You can cut out the middleman by using a waste baler on your own premises.

Waste balers are more efficient and cost effective compared to skips. They allow you to sort your waste on site so that you only need to put what’s absolutely necessary in the skip. They reduce the number of skips you need and could even bring your bin collection service down, which could save you up to 90% on waste costs.

Balers also save your employees time. You can throw an entire cardboard box in a baler without breaking it down, which means your employees can go back to value-added tasks sooner.

Balers also take up less space on your premises than skips. What’s more, you can even sell your bales to British Plastics or paper mills yourself, which allows you to earn money from your waste.

Is Your Rubbish Causing Financial Waste?

Most businesses in the UK accumulate a substantial amount of waste, whether you realise it or not. If you find your warehouse space filled with cardboard and plastic, then a baler could be the right option for you.

To learn more about how a baler could not only save you money but put some back in your pocket, get in touch with LSM to determine the right baler for your needs.