Recycling for small businesses

HelpfulConsumer

Can anyone help us find a recycling system we can incorporate? We would like to recycle our rubbish but have no facilty provided to us and as a very small business we cannot afford to pay for a collection service.

greyteam1959

We have looked into this as a small business.
The only way you can do anything is to pay to have the waste removed and recycled.....and you like us cannot really afford to pay for this service however enviromentally friendly you want to be.
Its a simple matter of cost........
However I have found a way around it...which works for us.
We take all our cardboard / paper / plastic etc to the local household waste site.....
Now I know you are supposed to pay if you are a business but in my view recycling is recycling......
I suppose it all depends on how much waste you produce really

Horace

I have a small business which I run from home - my waste paper is shredded and sometimes gets put on freecycle as hamster bedding. Newspapers, unwanted brochures, directories and magazines and cardboard get taken to the recycling bin down the road.

Glass jars and bottles also go to the recycling bins down the road. Tins go in the bin but as I live in Birmingham I know that when the waste gets to the incinerator that a huge magnet picks out all the metal which is then recycled separately.

HTH

Fire_Fox

Do you have sufficient outdoor, public-access space to ask the council if they would like to put some recycling bins on your property? A steady supply of considerate potential customers AND a waste collection on your doorstep!

Aril

We are also a small business facing the same challenges with recycling. One of the things we have done is to join Freecycle and we've been able to pass on jiffy bags and computers which are surplus to requirement
Aril

SKIPPY

Any paper which is not confidential of course and has one clean side could be donated to a local nursery - children use loads drawing pictures/painting etc.

greenbee

Aril - you need to be careful when passing on computers as a business. We have great difficulty in donating them to charity because of this! You need to ensure:

1. You have properly removed all the data (the commercial version of d-ban, or blanncco depending on the sensitivity of data). If you have customer details of any kind, or credit card/banking details, then you need to ensure that you have complied with the required standards.
2. You have removed all software and provided only the original disks that came with the PC. Otherwise you might find yourself in breach of copyright legislation... software vendors are getting pretty hot on this at the moment, and are targeting small/medium businesses as they are often unaware of the need for compliance measures, or how to prove that they are correctly licensed.
3. You have an audit trail of the change of ownership - you will be registered with the manufacturer as the purchase of a machine with a specific serial number, so you need the new owner to sign taking responsibility for the disposal (from an environmental perspective). Otherwise when it ends up being fly-tipped you may find your company is liable. Check the WEEE guidelines for more info.
4. It is also advisable to get the new owner to sign to say that they won't hold you responsible for any faults etc. We have a letter we ask them to sign to say that they understand that there is no warranty or support, the devices are received as seen, and that we cannot be held liable for any loss or damage as a result of use of the machine (we're thinking of electrical faults that may cause fires, or loss of data due to the kit being old and ropey!)

It's great that you're ensuring the stuff is reused, and hopefully this list isn't news to you, but it may help others thinking of going down this route.

We (I work for a large corporate, so it's a little different) work with a supplier who refurbishes or resells the useable kit, so we either get it back or get cash. The remainder is shredded and the materials recovered. There is a zero landfill policy, and I'm now working on understanding what's going to incineration and what we can do about that!

Horace

Incineration isnt too bad - here in Birmingham our incinerator just emits steam, they sell power to the national grid, the ash is turned into breeze blocks. It is all very efficient and environmentally friendly.

Aril

Thanks Greenbee. Yes we do remove everything...we're a computer training company:D
Aril

fernliebee

I've mentioned this on another recycling thread but have you looked to see if you have a scrap store locally? The one I work for collects waste from companies and then passes it on to schools, nurseries, children's groups etc for junk modelling, paper for drawing on equipment for groups etc. Everyone is a winner!! Some are better (bigger, more resources, staff etc) than others so they can collect more easily! They also do scrap swaps with other scrap store's as obviously industry donators are not the same nationwide, so they can get different materials in!

growing4gold

So do you have a business waste bin for collection??

I have a small mobile cafe and we try and be as enviromentally friendly as possible. Instead of having anything collected we take it to out local waste site.

Our waste is split into recyclables and waste- we pay LESS for recyclables.

Whats very important with your business is the slips you get when you dispose of anything, without these you can be checked up on and fined alot of money!

You're not meant to take any business recycling to the normal tip- its rediculous I know but someone can report you.