COVER STORY
Prior to reopening, businesses are rightly taking time to create return-to-work planning that encompasses safety for staff and customers. What else might businesses include in these plans related to recycling and waste management?
Furthermore, the ecological issues arising from the pandemic raised questions for us around how facilities were handling recycling and waste during the pandemic and what changes might be implemented in return-to- work planning.
“The EU’s €750bn pandemic
recovery package is part funded by a new plastic packaging waste tax that sees commercial operations taxed €800 per tonne.”
As early as April this year, across the UK, the NHS had orders in place for a billion items of PPE with a usage rate of 14m items per day. To be safe, this waste is isolated for 72 hours before being incinerated, rather than recycled. This led us to consider how facilities were intending to safely accommodate the disposal of staff and customer PPE.
The influence of the pandemic on commercial demand for materials such as plastic, glass and cardboard is another aspect which needs to be assessed. Consumer demand may fall due to increasing awareness, however, manufacturers’ demand may rise to unprecedented levels due to the increasing need for hygienic packaging.
The Solid Waste Association of North America found between February and April, domestic recycling output increased 20-30% leading to a suspension of recycling collections in some areas to ensure waste was managed properly with reduced staffing. When provided with the right provisions, people want to recycle, could businesses take advantage of this when workers return?
The recycling research results When research concluded at the end of August, we began the process of interpreting and analysing the responses we had received from business. From these findings, we created the Love Recycling Research Project Part Two report which gives an overview of the findings.
Among the key findings were:
● 67% of businesses surveyed suffered moderate to critical disruption.
● More than half say they experienced changes in recycling as a result.
● To tackle new waste streams, 29% of businesses now have dedicated PPE disposal bins.
● 30% say they have no recycling policy, and aren’t considering one.
Paul Jakeway, Head of Marketing, Rubbermaid Commercial Products EMEA, spoke directly about the findings in the
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Love Recycling Part Two report. He said: “The findings in this report give us a clearer understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown conditions have affected commercial recycling intent and practice. With the majority of businesses suffering moderate to critical level disruption, it was expected that priorities would shift, and some change would occur.
“More than half of the businesses we heard from confirmed this expectation indicating the pandemic had caused them to change the recycling work that they do. However, we also discovered that 35% of businesses are planning to recycle more in light of the pandemic and the conditions it has created. Of those surveyed, 38% also said that recycling and waste management have renewed importance for them as a consequence of the pandemic.
“More reassuringly, despite the turmoil European business has seen in the last seven months, recycling still ranks a top three issue for businesses. This shows that despite the interim setbacks and disruptions that businesses have faced, they are holding steady when it comes to responsible commercial recycling and waste management.
“We will continue to support businesses that are looking for cost effective ways to increase their activities and raise the profile of commercial recycling across Europe. No one institution, business or country is responsible for protecting the future of our planet. Let’s do this together.”
The Love Recycling Research Project Part Two report is available to download at
loverecycling.com alongside auditing tools and free consultancy that can help you to analyse your recycling and do more without increasing your budget.
https://loverecycling.com/
https://loverecycling.com/
loverecycling.com
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