Recycling and Sustainability
Our recycling and sustainability approach is designed to support cleaner communities, reduce landfill dependence, and make everyday waste handling simpler for households, businesses, and property managers. By combining practical collection methods with responsible sorting, we help ensure materials are recovered wherever possible and sent into the right recycling streams. A key part of this work is setting a clear recycling percentage target: our current ambition is to divert at least 90% of suitable waste from landfill through recycling, reuse, and recovery routes, with ongoing reviews to improve performance year on year.
Across local neighbourhoods, boroughs often use different approaches to waste separation, and that makes clear sorting especially important. Some areas rely on mixed dry recycling collections, while others encourage residents to separate paper, glass, metals, and food waste more carefully. Our recycling services are built to support those local expectations, helping materials such as cardboard, plastics, metals, and paper enter the correct waste management pathway. We also pay close attention to contamination, because even a small amount of misplaced material can reduce the quality of a load and limit what can be reused.
A strong recycling programme depends on convenient local infrastructure, which is why we work with nearby transfer stations to keep waste moving efficiently. These facilities act as essential hubs where collected items can be consolidated, checked, and forwarded to specialist processors. Local transfer stations also help reduce unnecessary journeys, improve load planning, and support lower emissions across the wider recycling process. In areas with busy urban roads and dense housing, this network is especially useful because it keeps collections flexible while still maintaining high sorting standards.
Partnerships with charities are another important part of our sustainability model. Many items do not need to be treated as waste at all, and through charity partnerships we can support the donation of reusable furniture, household goods, office items, and other surplus materials. This helps extend product life, reduce disposal volumes, and benefit community organisations at the same time. Where suitable, we prioritise reuse before recycling, because the greenest item is often the one that is used again.
Our recycling and sustainability work also includes a focus on transport. We operate low-carbon vans as part of our move toward cleaner collections, using vehicles designed to reduce emissions compared with older diesel fleets. These vans help us serve busy streets, controlled parking zones, and residential estates more efficiently while lowering our overall environmental footprint. In practical terms, this means better route planning, fewer unnecessary miles, and a quieter, cleaner service for local areas.
We also support source separation habits that reflect the needs of borough-based waste systems. For example, where local rules favour separate recycling bins, our teams make it easier to keep cardboard apart from food waste, or glass apart from general rubbish. That attention to sorting matters because high-quality recycling begins at collection. When materials are separated correctly, they can be baled, reprocessed, and returned to manufacture more effectively, helping close the loop on everyday waste.
The environmental benefits go beyond the bin. A well-run recycling service reduces pressure on landfill sites, lowers transport emissions, and supports the wider circular economy. Every tonne of material diverted from disposal can save resources, energy, and raw materials. By combining local transfer station access, charity-led reuse, and efficient vehicle use, we aim to build a system that is both practical and measurable. Our recycling percentage target gives us a clear benchmark, while also encouraging continuous improvement in collection quality and recovery rates.
In many boroughs, waste separation is becoming more detailed, with residents encouraged to sort food waste, dry recycling, and residual waste into distinct streams. We align our services with this trend by reinforcing good segregation practices during collections and onward processing. This can include handling cardboard flattening, separating metals, and ensuring recyclable plastics are not mixed with general rubbish. The result is a cleaner material stream that is easier for recycling facilities to process and more likely to be turned into new products.
Our commitment to sustainability is ongoing. As recycling expectations evolve, we continue to refine our methods, strengthen local partnerships, and invest in lower-impact operations. From charity reuse routes to low-carbon vans and transfer station collaboration, every part of the system contributes to a more responsible approach. By focusing on practical changes and measurable outcomes, we support communities that want greener waste solutions without sacrificing convenience or reliability.
