The benefits of recycling plastics are:

• Money for the recycler – many plastics have a value that can be realised when they are recycled as opposed to being landfilled
• Reduced carbon footprint – with more products being recycled, there is less petroleum being refined into new plastics
• Plastic production uses 8% of the world’s oil production, 4% as feedstock and 4% during manufacture
• Reduced production of nitrogen oxide & sulphur dioxide
• Reduced reliance on oil – with a greater proportion of plastics recycled, there is less need for the UK economy to import petroleum

If you’re in doubt about whether your plastics can be recycled, please contact us & we’ll be happy to help you determine whether you can reduce your landfill costs

Reducing Landfill Costs

Landfilling is bad for the environment and, more importantly, it’s a waste of money.

In recent years, recycling has become less of a green initiative and more of a business necessity, helping businesses to gain extra revenue streams and advantages over their competition by earning rebates that their competitors don’t.

So there are now significant economic reasons why companies have initiatives like:

• Zero to landfill
• Fewest miles to recycling

This is because the less that is landfilled, the more waste that is repurposed and that other companies value meaning more value to the people with the waste and the fewer miles that companies send their waste, the lower the transportation costs and the greater the rebates they can earn.

In addition to the economic incentives of minimising landfill, there is a massive economic disincentive to send waste to landfill: Landfill tax.

The government’s Landfill Tax is currently £80 per tonne, rising with the Retail Price Index from 1 April 2015 to £82.60. This means that there has never been a better time than now to reduce landfill costs.

How can you reduce landfill costs? Well here are 4 options that we recommend:

• Have a waste assessment
• Segregate waste streams
• Ask for a second opinion
• Bale waste

What are the Advantages of a Baler?

There are many advantages to balers:

• Reduction in waste disposal costs (landfill tax increased to £72 on 1st April 2013)
• Less time spent on waste management
• Tidier work environment and reduced fire hazard
• Revenue can be generated from saleable bale products

The Environmental Benefits

There is a huge economic benefit to businesses recycling plastics but the environmental benefits include:

• In the UK, plastic made up 9% of our household waste. We currently only recycle around 24% of plastic.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency say that plastics make up 13% of the country’s waste.
• Over 50% of litter found on UK beaches in 2008 was plastic, an increase of more than 120% since 1994
• 75% of post consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill (Landfill tax alone is £64 per tonne & so businesses should not be doing this!)
• Plastic bags and other plastic rubbish thrown into the ocean kill as manyas 1,000,000 sea creatures every year
• If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just 1 day they would circle the earth
• If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just 1 day they would circle the earth
• Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours (Recoup)