Member Article

Separating Your Waste: A Simple Way To Save Your Business Money

It is without question that during these unprecedented times many small businesses are facing never before seen challenges and as such are having to re-evaluate how they run their business. For these organizations, every penny counts, and any opportunity to cut costs should be seized.

Fortunately, such an opportunity exists within these businesses’ waste collection overheads.

SMEs can save money every month by simply having more bins. Or perhaps more specifically, more types of bins for various types of waste.

Registered companies in the UK are legally required to dispose of their wasted produce in a safe and responsible manner as part of the waste duty of care policy (2016). In fact, businesses in England are responsible for one-fifth of all the rubbish produced in the country.

As such, most businesses choose to use a licenced waste management contractor to pick up and transport their waste to the appropriate disposal facility.

This removes the hassle of having to deal with the trade waste yourself which can be impractical and particularly difficult to meet the legal requirements set by the UK government.

But, many businesses are not fully aware of their waste needs and so often just opt for a general waste collection service. However, this means that many businesses are wasting an opportunity to make savings in their waste collections.

The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, for instance, suggests that between four to five per cent of a businesses’ turnover can be credited to waste disposal costs in the UK.

So, there is a significant opportunity for savings in this area and in order to capitalise, you should ask your service provider for more bins in order to segregate your waste.

Because, if you do, you will throw less rubbish into your general waste bin and the less rubbish in your general waste bin means that your business is sending less to landfill and consequently you will be taxed less.

This is a problem because landfill tax is expensive and has risen to £94.15 per tonne since April 1st 2020 and will likely continue to rise gradually over time. This has a significant economic impact on a business.

For example, a typical small restaurant will have two bin types. One for general waste and one for recycling. This means that they will be sending a lot of their refuse to landfill.

That’s because all of their prep cuttings, scraped plates, and expired food will be tossed into the general waste bin; which leads straight to landfill and to the subsequent taxes and gate fees.

The solution to this is to get a food waste bin. This will allow the restaurant to disperse its waste across their three bin types, and, therefore, less will be put into general waste. Whatsmore, their discarded food can then be recycled into useful products such as fertilizers and biofuel.

The Managing Director at CheaperWaste, Stewart Renfrew, believes that “sending waste to landfill is becoming more and more expensive to the point where recycling is by far the best economical choice for SMEs”. This should surely be convincing enough to compel you to get additional bins in order to recycle refuse such as food waste.

Having additional bins for various types of commercial waste also saves you money on overweight bin charges.

Overweight bins are common. Take the small restaurant example again. Just one extra busy day or ram-packed weekend can lead to excess waste being put into the business’ bins, filling them up, and preventing the lid from being closed. This is typical.

The reason this is a problem is that waste management contractors can only pick up a certain amount of waste each collection day because there’s only so much weight these vehicles can take.

If any of the small businesses they collect for have overweight bins on that collection day, their vehicle will reach its maximum capacity prematurely and so a second trip may be needed.

This is costly and so they will likely bill your company an ‘overweight bin charge’ if you were the ones with the overfilled bins.

So, having additional bins for different types of rubbish is an easy way to reduce the chances of one of your waste containers being overweight come collection day.

To find out how much waste your business is producing and what types it produces the most you should conduct a waste audit where you monitor how much and what you dispose of from one collection day to another. This audit will help you identify areas where your business can save money.

According to recycling group Envirotech, 60 per cent of all UK rubbish that ends up in the bin could have been recycled. A waste audit could help you lower this percentage.

If from your waste audit, you find that your business is producing food waste, glass waste, or dry-mixed recycling frequently you should certainly consider getting a dedicated bin. Ideally, you should use a waste management service such as CheaperWaste which can provide you with these bins and customise a package tailored for your businesses’ needs.

Small businesses are integral to the economy and whilst they combat these tough times every money-saving opportunity should be explored and we believe that your waste collection overheads pose room for improvement.

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