With September just around the corner, it’s back to school for children across the UK, and time to suit up and bag up for the new term. This got us thinking about how there are more similarities between schools and waste management services than first meets the eye.
School is a place of education, and is considered key to a child’s future. And we believe the same can be said for waste management. Education is the key factor in driving those important waste disposal changes forward and making a difference to the future. Just look at how far we’ve got with plastics, after learning about its effects through Blue Planet II. As a service provider, Printwaste needs to also be a teacher, educating others about waste disposal. So we thought we’d start with something that confuses a lot of people…which materials can and cannot be recycled. To give you an idea, here are 5 of our most unusual services…
1. Polystyrene
Used heavily in the packaging industry, polystyrene takes a whopping one thousand years to degrade at landfill. Comprised of 98% air and 2% polystyrene, economically and commercially, it is very difficult to recycle. But, at Printwaste, we’re always up for a challenge. So we collect polystyrene, compact it in-house and send it off to be recycled back into packaging or insulation.
2. Beverage Cartons (Tetra Pak)
Made from 75% paperboard, 20% plastic & 5% aluminium, cartons are 100% recyclable and currently achieve a total recovery rate of 76% (47% recycled, 29% energy recovery) from the 430,000 tonnes collected. Appointed in 2015 as the new bring bank contractor, we provide a carton collection service across England, Wales and Scotland for consumer waste. We also offer a commercial waste collection service within a 75-mile radius of Cheltenham.
3. On-site confidential shredding of hard-drives
Hard-drives have been shredded for years, but, in 2017, we launched an on-site service, enabling us to shred hard-drives on your premises. With the recent GDPR changes, this option offers peace of mind for customers, as they can see in-person that the material has been destroyed. However, we would like to add that both our on-site and off-site shredding services are 100% secure!
4. Product destruction
We don’t just shred paper and media materials, we shred everything from counterfeit products to items of branded clothing. In doing so, we help prevent recalled, damaged or out-of-date products from entering or re-entering the marketplace and help maintain brand reputation and integrity. Commercially-sensitive products like these require secure destruction, and we do just that – destroying them within 24 hours and providing a certificate of destruction afterwards.
5. Site clearances
Relocating premises or upgrading office and site equipment can become a massive burden on any business, because of the sheer quantity and variety of waste materials involved. Site clearances aren’t exactly unusual, but the breath of what we can collect is. From Elton John’s garden party chairs to an old saxophone found in an office cabinet, we’ve seen a huge variety of waste materials over the years. Our clearance service involves the collection and most appropriate disposal of your waste materials (either recycled, shredded or through energy recovery (waste-to-energy)) – ensuring 99.9% of material avoids landfill.
So that wraps up our class on the top five most unusual services we offer here at Printwaste but it goes without saying that waste management requirements are bespoke to your company’s needs – both in terms of services required and quantity to be collected. So, whatever the waste please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01242 588600 or sales@printwaste.co.uk for any waste management related enquiries.
