Where There’s Muck There’s Money.

Let’s talk about waste.

After contacting our waste contractor earlier this week to determine why our bin had not been emptied and why our recycling had not been collected, I was informed that it was our fault for not having put the bins in their designated place!

Whilst there is a designated place for our bins to be placed ready for collection, in practice, this has not been the case since June 2019.

For the uninitiated, the cost of commercial waste removal is a huge burden to any business, rightly so to encourage a strategy of waste reduction in each business served. It was for this reason that I actively chose at the start of our waste contract to have a 40kg limit to our non recyclable waste and an unlimited weight of recycling.

At HFM, as a business that thrives on the challenge of continuously improving and reducing the environmental impact that our business has, I am utterly shocked by the lack of care shown to the environment by waste management companies. 

I’ll hasten to add that I don’t want to take a “holier than thou” stance, as while we try our best to be as environmentally friendly as possible, we as a business aren’t even remotely close to the environmental goals we are planning to achieve in our long term plan - a plan which requires constant reinvestment in greener vehicles, solar panels and other renewable energy sources.

A dirty little secret in waste management is that recycling is classed as “DMR” (Dry Mixed Recycling), so called because it needs to be dry for when it is burned. That’s right. Burned. Burned to create new energy in most cases, but certainly not many people’s definition of what recycling actually is.

The above was a primary motivation in our decision to reuse market boxes and crates as many times as feasibly possible, while still hygienic and fit for purpose. Any surplus boxes that are still usable are loaded back onto our vans and returned to the market for further redistribution to smaller independent producers, growers and farmers.

To cut a long story short, our waste contractor has has been today, but left the extra recycling which should have been removed on their last collection. They did of course take the extra non-recyclable waste due to the extra weight they’d be able to charge for. The extra Dry Mixed Recycling was left in the designated place for collection. Not in a container, but in the rain on a wet November day, no longer fit to be classed as DMR. Not mention the fact that the residents of Derby Place have to see this.

I’m yet to find a principled waste contractor. It seems the only motivation for those I’ve had dealings with is money. No motivation to improve the environment. And certainly no customer service.

Please, if you are a forward thinking waste contractor, whose primary motivation is to improve the environment through your business practices, and you’re able to offer a consistent level of (preferably good) customer service, do get in touch with us.

After our current waste contractor had “completed” their task.