Member Article

Biffa warns of potential business waste in Edinburgh

An Edinburgh-based waste expert is warning of a potential build-up of rubbish in the city centre when the City of Edinburgh Council’s trade waste collection service ends at the beginning of July.

Brian Rooney, Regional Sales Manager from Biffa, one of the UK’s leading waste services providers, has expressed concern about the pending issue of summer waste build-up in the city centre unless businesses take action now to source a new waste supplier ready for when the council stops its collections next month.

The company has doubled its team in Edinburgh ahead of the changes to support businesses who now find themselves having to find their own trade waste supplier to take away their waste and recycling.

The council has decided to stop providing a trade waste collection service as part of its 2016/17 budget savings and due to the competitive nature of the Edinburgh waste collection market. It wrote to all businesses affected by the service cut to inform them of the change.

Brian said: “With more than 16,000 businesses in Edinburgh and the average business generating more than 80kgs of waste per week, there’s a risk that some businesses may not get their new trade waste collection service set up in time. The council will remove their bins after the contract comes to an end which could potentially lead to a build-up of waste outside those premises where an alternative waste collection service has not yet been arranged.

“We want to get the message out to businesses now that they must make new arrangements with an alternative waste supplier to collect trade waste and recycling, and we are prepped and ready to provide advice and a quote to any businesses looking to set up a new waste service. We have already picked up an additional 500 customers during the first 8 weeks since the council announcement was made.”

Biffa already operates a comprehensive waste management service for businesses in Edinburgh, servicing over 3000 customers on a weekly basis and collecting around 20,000 tonnes of waste locally per year.

For more information on Biffa’s corporate waste services, call 0800 023 2172 or log onto http://www.biffa.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Biffa .