Tackling Bristol’s business waste

This article is part of a six month series on waste, which investigates what is happening at a local and national level and where Bristol businesses and residents can get involved to make change.

In England, 32.2 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste, excluding construction waste, was created in the UK in 2016, according to data from Defra. Looking at ways to reduce, reuse and recycle will have both environmental and financial benefits for businesses large and small.

If you are a Bristol business owner wondering what you should be doing about your waste, these tips from Bristol’s waste and resources experts including Eunomia, Resources Futures and Bristol Waste are for you.

Do a waste composition analysis
This means looking at what is actually in your bins. Put on a pair of gloves and sort materials into piles which you grade by weight or volume. Doing this will highlight what your biggest waste streams and priorities are. “Identify the biggest or most expensive fraction and tackle each waste stream one at a time; don’t try to do it all at once,” recommends Gwen Frost, development and sustainability manager at Bristol Waste.

Look at all the costs
When you are considering each waste stream in the bin, don’t just think about the costs for disposal. “Look at the costs for the raw materials, plus the energy and machinery that has made something,” says Harriet Parke, senior consultant at Eunomia. This will give you the full cost of your waste and allow for different conversations to happen within your business: rather than just talking about disposal, you can discuss prevention at the beginning of the material’s life. Check to see if there are any online tools to help you monitor waste in your industry.

Consult the Waste Hierarchy
Often the first solution people think of is recycling, but this is the third option in regards to the waste hierarchy and not always the cheapest option. Prevention and reuse are cheaper in the long run.

The waste hierarchy was enshrined into UK law in 2011 for businesses to follow and is a good guide for considering how to deal with items that become waste

Don’t take it home
You may think that you don’t create enough waste for a business collection service and the household service is already paid for. However, Gwen highlights that by taking office rubbish home, householders are paying for your waste processing through their council tax. For business collections, you don’t have to have weekly collections – in Bristol, bi-weekly or monthly options are available. Local waste brokers like Waste Source can find the best service for your needs, so you don’t have to spend hours ringing around.

Separate your waste streams for processing
Separate waste streams generally achieve the best recycling rates, as the materials command a higher market value. Finding a commercial contractor that offers this at an affordable rate can be challenging because of the transport costs associated with collecting individual waste streams on different vehicles.

However, in Bristol there are a couple of options. Bristol Waste offer a commercial waste and recycling service. Furthermore, you can look at teaming up with your neighbours for shared collections. This is being done with a new scheme in the Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID). They are working with Veolia to provide a new waste collection service to more than 780 businesses in the city centre, which is available to small and large businesses alike. Find out more by contacting Veolia directly.

Due to the negative impacts of food waste in landfill (giving off methane which is a dangerous greenhouse gas) it is particularly important to look at separating and processing food waste, especially if you are a food producer.

Engage your staff and contractors
Jane Stephenson, business development director at Resource Futures says that staff engagement and training is really important: “It’s all very well having lots of different bins for different materials but if the cleaners or other staff members aren’t aware how the system works, then it won’t work.”

Consider the end of life when buying a product
When you consider buying a material, think about its usage and end of life to ensure it is fit for the job, or that you have the right processing in place. If you have compostable coffee cups or packaging you need to have a food waste collection that will accept it and be able to process it: in-vessel composting facilities can process compostable serveware but anaerobic digestor plants can’t.

Compostable packaging needs to be sent for processing in an in-vessel composter

Consider bioplastics carefully
Proceed with caution when considering bioplastics for bags, packaging, straws and cups. There are many types and how they break down and under what conditions varies greatly.

Oxydegradable plastics, especially bags, are a disaster if they end up as litter: they break down into pieces and create lots of microplastics that can be very damaging to animals.

Compostable plastic cups and takeaway containers sound ideal but they will only compost in a particular type of processor, usually an in-vessel composting facility; the nearest to Bristol is Gloucester. This means if they end up as litter they are as problematic as plastic.

Check with your waste management company on how they process bioplastics and what bins are required. Read the bioplastics article for more insight.

Get some support
If all of this sounds quite overwhelming then seek advice from a resource and waste management consultancy who can give you support.

There are even more suggestions on the Bristol Green Capital Partnership website. Furthermore, they chair a waste and resources action group, so if you are passionate about waste you can join the partnership to find out more.

For more information on compostable and oxydegradable plastics, visit: www.bristol247.com/lifestyle/environment/oxy-degradable-and-compostable-plastics

For tips about inspiring your household and increasing the amount you recycle, visit: www.bristol247.com/lifestyle/environment/tips-household-waste-recycling