• Overview

     

    The guidance below aims to inform London-based members about what to be aware of when selecting a waste management company to work with. GCC London has spoken to several companies that have been put forward and are used by members. We have produced a google sheet collating the details of the services they provide (based on specific questions and their responses). We hope that this will be a useful tool when it comes to decision making. If you would like to suggest a waste management company to be added to this list, please get in touch. 

     

    As always with waste, the most important focus should be on reduction. Recycling requires energy, incurs a carbon footprint, and should be the last resort for material disposal. Think: ‘Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, Repurpose’.

     

    For general waste management tips, see the GCC Waste Resource.

     

     

  •  

    Waste Management Companies: Sustainability Background Checks

    What to look out for

    • Transparency: service providers should be able and willing to answer the questions as set out in the GCC Waste Resource. The more willing a company is to share information, the better you can trust its environmental claims and credentials.

    • Locality:waste should be handled as locally as possible, and always within the same country. (Unless there is good reason, exporting waste raises a red flag.)

    • Support: a good waste management company will offer to attend your premises to advise you on how to improve your waste segregation.

     

     


  • Available Services: Collated Findings

    GCC London reached out to a selection of waste management companies, based on those most commonly used by members. The questions below were put to each company, and the outcome of this research has been collated in a spreadsheet.


    View waste management company comparison

     

    These questions were sent to each company via email, with follow up calls made when GCC London did not receive an answer.

    Q1. What waste and recycling collection streams are on offer?

    Q2. Where is the initial disposal facility? 

    Q3. Where is the end disposal facility? 

    Q4. What happens to the waste? Are you able to tell us what is anaerobically digested, what is incinerated, what the second life of the waste that is recycled is, and how these items are used?

    Q5. Would a member of your team be able to visit our premises and provide tailored advice on waste management?

     

    This is a growing resource, we hope GCC members will contribute to it with their own findings. If you would like to share information you have on other waste management services available in London, or would like to request that GCC London reaches out to a company not listed here, please get in touch with us at info@galleryclimatecoaliton.org

     
     

  • Waste Management Email Template

    Organisations may be tied into a contract with a specific waste management company. Often this is because they are located within a shared or council-owned property. If this is the case GCC London has produced an email template to share with your landlord, council, building management or co-tenants.


    View Email Template

  • Go Even Further 

    From our research, we know that even when using the best waste management services on offer, some commonly used materials will end up being incinerated. There are some ways around this. 

    ReFactory specialises in the ‘harder to handle’ materials. They take waste material and re-introduce it back into the supply chain through the manufacture of bespoke products. By using their mixed plastic recycling boxes, ReFactory will collect your ‘hard to recycle’ waste plastic (that isn’t eligible for your local recycling services) and send it to their recycling facility in Hull, where it is repurposed into building materials, shop fittings, and furniture. Reworked even offer a take-back scheme for the items they produce, so that they can be infinitely recycled after use. 

    If you are interested in teaming up with local GCC members to share a zero waste box for hard to recycle items, such as gloves, get in touch with us: info@galleryclimatecoalition.org

     

  • Terminology Explainers 

    Waste Stream

    Waste streams are flows of specific types of waste, from its source through to recovery, recycling or disposal. Waste streams can be divided into two types: streams made of materials (such as metals or plastics) or streams made of certain products (such as electronic waste or end-of-life vehicles) which require specific treatment.

     

    Zero Waste 

    Zero Waste is a waste management solution focused on waste prevention. This ensures that products and materials are designed to have a long life, and will be reused, repaired, or recycled rather than landfilled or incinerated.

    “The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning, and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.” – Zero Waste International Alliance

     

    Zero Waste to Landfill 

    Zero waste to landfill is a waste management approach towards diverting as much waste as possible from ending up in landfill. However this approach can end up glorifying incineration and ‘waste-to-energy’ facilities as an alternative waste management solution, thus encouraging more waste production. In fact the priority should be waste prevention. Instead of Zero Waste to Landfill, the focus should be to adopt a Zero Waste model. 


    Incineration

    For many countries, globally and in the UK, waste that is diverted from being buried in landfill sites are sent to be burned in incinerator facilities instead. 

     

    Incineration is a waste treatment process that uses combustion technologies to burn waste and, as many companies like to claim, transform this ‘waste into energy’ during the process. 

     

    However, research shows that incinerators are in fact detrimental to our environment for several reasons, a few of which are outlined below. 

     

    • Over 90% of the materials that end up in incinerators could be reused, repurposed,  recycled or composted, encouraging the linear system of ‘take-make-dispose’. 

    • Incinerator plants release more CO2 than gas power stations: the process of burning waste produces toxic emissions (toxic ash), which contributes to air and water pollution.

    • Inefficient and expensive: incinerators burn large amounts of reusable materials while producing only small amounts of energy. It is also one of the most expensive ways to generate energy, as the upkeep is immensely costly.

     

  •  

    Further Reading