Last year Biffa had been working to improve recycling levels for business waste.  As part of this they had rebranded the Dry Mixed Recycling service as simply ‘Recycling’. This project was paused due to COVID-19, but it is now being relaunched.

Biffa have conducted field trials across their customers which shows that individual recycling containers frequently contain more than 30% contaminants. This then contaminates good quality recyclables, and they cannot be turned into recycled products.

Changes are therefore planned to improve the quality of recycling to help increase the UK’s recycling levels and to send less to landfill sites. By getting more of the right waste in the right bins more material can be sent to recycling facilities resulting in more waste being recycled into new products and re-used, reducing businesses overall environmental impact.

In 2020 we achieved 95% landfill diversion and have maintained our target at 95% for 2021.

Key changes are:

• Clear bags (rather than black bags) must be used in the Recycling containers as this allows Biffa drivers to check if there are any waste items which will contaminate the other recyclables in the truck.

• All coloured/black plastic wrap, as well as all plastic strapping/banding, will need to go into General Waste.

• No food, glass or paper handtowels to be placed in the Recycling bin. Separate arrangements can be made if required.

The Recycling poster as shown above can be displayed on all sites. The poster can be found at the end of this document and in the download section of the UK News website www.cemexuknews.co.uk/downloads.  A video showing what happens during the recycling process is available at: www.biffa.co.uk/recycling