1 October 2019

Recycle Week 2019 – Clearabee Stats

Read Time: 4 mins

Recycle week is an annual event which this year fell last week (23rd – 29th September), marking the 17th year of the event being organised.

As the UK’s largest rubbish clearance company offering same-day services to homes and businesses nationwide we take our recycling and environmental obligations very seriously. We also offer a skip hire service, skip bags and business waste solutions with equally high standards of service.

Landfill Diversion & Rubbish Recycling

We produce recycling carbon reporting as standard for our customers but as last week was Recycle Week we have produced a report on our activities over this period specifically. We’re happy to report that we achieved a landfill diversion rate of slightly over 96%. This means out of the 837,392 kg’s we collected from business waste and home customers around the country, we diverted 806,408 kg away from landfill sites.

van graphic

In addition to this we also offset 100% of our scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, which means the emissions from our office and all of our 100+ vehicles (we also get our office power from renewable sources only). Our carbon is offset through our own UK forests – last year we planted 6,500 trees in Scotland and this year we will plant 12,000 trees in England.

Over 95% of our fleet is EURO 6 and our new vehicles are built on an extra-strong but lightweight chassis, making them even more environmentally friendly.

Our clearance service is 100% in-house, which means we take full responsibility for the waste we remove.

Collections / Movements of Waste

 

We completed 3,274 movements last week all over the country. Our rubbish removal teams are all local with over 100 unique locations, meaning we’re never far from the collection location. We also recycle locally which really keeps our driving to a minimum, further helping the environment through reduced mileage. We remove rubbish all over the country although broadly in line with the population, London is one of our most dense areas along with other major cities such as Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

map

Waste reprocessing and recycling sites

We used 215 unique reprocessing sites during recycling week although have access to over 600 sites, which ensures we only take your waste to the most appropriate and environmentally friendly reprocessing facility.

 

Selected types of facilities used last week to recycle your waste

Waste Transfer Station & Materials Recovery Facility – The majority of the rubbish we collect is transported to a local Waste Transfer Station where it is bulked up into specific waste streams and then sent for reprocessing at specialist facilities. A Materials Recycling Facility is often attached to these facilities, which allows most standard waste streams to be treated on site. To read about a recent audit at a MRS / Transfer station click here.

processing machinery

A Materials Recovery Facility is a ‘generalist’ site which can typically process hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish and extract the different waste streams, with only a very small residual amount of waste being used for incineration or sent to landfill. There is often a regional variation in recycling rate based off local reprocessing capability – in London we usually achieve a 100% landfill diversion whilst in very low population areas there may be a little junk less reprocessing available.

bailed waste

Anaerobic Digestion Facilities – these sites are used for food and organic waste and provide eco-friendly, clean energy back to the grid. AD plants are becoming increasingly popular and we use a range of facilities from small plants on farms to large industrial and commercial waste facilities.

processing site

Metal Reprocessors – these facilities specialise in metal waste. Typically waste brought into these sites are separated into specific waste streams and then smelted ready for reuse. Metal will nearly always achieve a 100% recycling rate.

metal

Waste Electrical (WEEE) Reprocessors – small and large electronic waste will often be sent to a specialist WEEE reprocessor where all materials are extracted. This can include hazardous and non-hazardous rubbish.

 

Back to all articles

Related articles

Need help or got a question?

Start a live chat with a member of our helpful team