Where there’s muck
June 1st 2005

Efficiency literally means profit, which is why companies are increasingly taking waste management more seriously. Steve Burnett, MD of Kent-based Compact & Bale, says its all about making it easy for firms to improve bottom lines. Brendan Coyne reports In the 10 years Steve Burnett has been in the waste and recycling industry, companies in all sectors are now beginning to take waste management more seriously: “Both from the point of view that their clients, customers and staff are beginning to demand higher standards and that quality assurance – the ISO issues– are requiring companies to look more at what they do and not be so wasteful.” Also, he says that because ‘morally’ waste is higher on the agenda; plus the fact that the government, by increasing Landfill Tax and implementing European directives, is making it “increasingly more expensive than the traditional route of ‘chuck it out the back door and let the bin man take it’.” Naturally this is good news for waste management companies like Compact & Bale. But it’s a mutual benefit. Because, says Burnett, when it’s a case of improving bottom lines, money saved is far more valuable than money earned: “If you work to a 10% profit margin and can save £10,000 annually on waste – it’s like earning an extra £100,000 a year in revenue. All businesses are constantly looking at ways to cut costs and become more efficient – and awareness of waste management as a means to do this is increasing. Perhaps that’s because there are now more companies like us helping them to achieve it.” He says the key is to make it easy for companies to implement effective measures. For example, Burnett says one of C&B’s agents works with a major UK parcel delivery company which has installed baling presses for its waste polythene: “So they reduce the volume of their pallet-wrap waste, and as licensed brokers and carriers, we also do the collections for them.

Basically we say to people ‘here’s the solution in terms of the machine, and we’ll carry away your compacted full loads easily and economically – and you’ll save money.’” Overspend Burnett says too many companies are spending far more than they need to on waste disposal. Because it is usually charged by volume, if you fill up a skip with loose polythene, cardboard, paper, stretchwrap etc., “you get no weight – therefore immediately spending more than necessary”.

He claims this is due in part to a conflict of interest with the waste disposal companies.

“Without wishing to name names, there are major waste contractors making huge profits out of driving rubbish around. Now that isn’t helping anyone. So it frustrates me when I approach a company and ask to speak to who ever’s in charge of waste management and they say ‘no – we have a waste contractor handling that’. Because it’s not in the contractor’s interest to reduce waste volumes. When I do get to show companies how they can sometimes save literally thousands of pounds a month, they are often surprised that their waste contractor hadn’t told them this before. But why would they?” Prioritise and profit He says its often also the case that businesses are too busy juggling other priorities to worry about waste. But Burnett believes companies must realise that waste “only becomes waste once it’s thrown away,” and instead look at is a a raw material. He says they should try to review waste policy on at least an annual basis.

As an example of the savings to be made he cites a contract with the Elephant & Castle shopping centre in South London.

“When we initially started talking to them they were filling a portable compactor with about six tonnes of waste which was being taken to landfill each week at full cost.

Installing a baling press enabled them to divert all of the cardboard that was previously going into the compactor: Cardboard takes up a lot of room in a compactor, and for every tonne you can remove from entering the compactor in the first place, you can typically get two tonnes of rubbish in there instead. So not only are you enabling a chunk of your waste to be sold as raw material, you are also giving yourself more capacity in your compactor.” Burnett says with the installation of a larger static compactor, the shopping centre’s waste goes out in 11 tonne loads.

“So the transport cost is the same for the greater load – in fact the transport costs less because the contractor takes the container from the static compactor on an exchange basis – whereas with the portable compactor he had to do a ‘run and return.’ In other words, drive away, empty it and bring it back. So the transport cost is reduced, the amount of tonnes per load almost doubled, and every week the centre is diverting two and a half to three tones of cardboard from landfill to recycling. So all in all [and considering Landfill Tax has increased this year to £17 per tonne and will increase every year], that’s a considerable saving.” While many companies are waking up to effective waste management, Burnett claims he can still walk onto any reasonably large industrial estate in the UK and identify at least 10 companies that are throwing money away.

Which begs the question: are you one of them? “There are major waste contractors making huge profits out of driving rubbish around. Now that isn’t helping anyone”

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