First Mile recycling company is cutting out diesel vehicles in London

First Mile, a company helping businesses to recycle everything possible, has added electric bikes to its fleet, which will be used to make sack deliveries to its customers throughout London.

This will reduce emissions in the capital by reducing the number of trucks available. Each bike will do a delivery round of 45 miles per day, which means 11,385 miles will be covered by leg over diesel per year.

Initially, the bikes will be used in Westminster and Camden boroughs, where the company has a total of 7,000 customers, however there are plans to roll out the service more widely in the future.

The CEO and founder of First Mile, Bruce Bratley, said: “We are thrilled to start powering our business and serving our customers with pedal power and not diesel! Air pollution is a huge problem in London and every business has a responsibility to take as many trucks, cars and vans off the road as they possibly can.

“Investing in a fleet of electric bikes is only the start of our journey to help make London’s streets cleaner. We are always looking for more ways to innovate so that we can continually help every business we work with to be a planet saver.”

Within just five days of 2017, London breached its air pollution limit - it’s predicted that more than 50,000 lives in the city will be cut short because of this by 2030.

In areas like Carnaby Street, First Mile is now working with local landlords to collect all waste and recycling using wheeled containers from one central point. This is opposed to driving through 20 streets burning diesel fumes.

The company is using such electric vehicles through Gnewt Cargo, which it is partnered with. Alongside the use of these, First Mile also counteracts carbon emissions through collections in central London using compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles.

Generally, First Mile partners with many associations to consolidate the waste supply chain and reduce vehicle usage.

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