Reduce waste and save money

The waste hierarchy is a way of looking at the waste your business produces and reducing it as much as possible. Reducing the amount you throw away can lower your costs and improve your environmental performance.

There are five ways you can try and reduce the waste your business produces. The aim is to reduce the amount of waste at every stage of the process leaving as little as possible to finally dispose of.

1. Prevention

The best way to reduce waste is to prevent the generation of it in the first place. Things you can do to prevent waste include:

• Working with suppliers to reduce the amount of packaging on materials you buy
• Looking at the quantities of stock you are ordering - make sure you are not over-ordering and wasting stock, especially perishable items
• Considering bulk buying to reduce packaging

2. Preparing for re-use

Once you have prevented the generation of as much waste as you can, the next step is to ensure that you try and re-use as much of the waste as possible. This could include:

• Repairing and refurbishing items instead of throwing them away
• Donating unwanted items that are still in working order to local charities or re-use organisations
• If you serve food and drink provide reusable containers and encourage customers to return them after use

3. Recycling

Recycling turns waste into new substances or products. Many organisations in Newham offer recycling services such as cardboard collections, waste cooking oil collection and composting of waste fruit and vegetables. Glass, cans, plastics, paper and all cardboard can also be recycled locally.

4 & 5. Recovery and disposal

Once you have applied all the previous steps you will be left with waste which needs to be disposed of. By disposing of your waste at a materials recovery facility the waste is treated before final disposal meaning further materials can be recovered and recycled.

Newham Council provides a commercial waste collection service for businesses within the borough. By entering into an agreement with Newham Council to collect your waste you are ensuring that your waste goes through a recovery process. All waste is taken to a Biological Materials Recovery Facility (BioMRF) where waste is dried, metals are extracted and recycled, solids are used in land reclamation and other materials are used as fuel. At the end of the process less than 30% of the waste is sent to landfill.