London: Closed Loop Recycling is urging UK Businesses to get greener by recycling their lunchtime food packaging waste. An estimated 80% of office waste can be recycled and food packaging waste is considered a significant component.
Businesses are being targeted in Greater London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. They will be sent details of a new Office Recycling and Collection initiative run by Closed Loop Recycling with partners Marks & Spencer and Solo Cup Europe.
"Recycling at work is lagging behind recycling in the home. Not only is this inefficient and uneconomic for businesses, it is detrimental to the environment as waste that can easily be recycled often ends up in landfill"
Chris Dow, Closed Loop Recycling MD
Tonnes of sandwich wrappers, soft drinks bottles and salad trays are thrown in general waste bins every day, in addition to some office waste paper and cardboard.
There will be a 12 week direct mail campaign from Monday 22 September, involving 8,000 leaflets sent to small and medium-sized businesses detailing the measures they can take to encourage recycling in their offices.
Closed Loop Recycling says that the average cost for a 20 person office that would generate approximately five bags of waste per week, would be around £5 to join the scheme. The recycling service will initially be available in and around the four cities, though it is intended to take the scheme nationwide over the next two years.
Closed Loop Recyling MD, Chris Dow said:
“Recycling at work is lagging behind recycling in the home. Not only is this inefficient and uneconomic for businesses, it is detrimental to the environment as waste that can easily be recycled often ends up in landfill. Our office recycling and collection scheme provides a simple solution to that problem.”
In addition to establishing the Office Recycling Scheme, Closed Loop Recycling will shortly open a innovative plant in Dagenham, London that is the first to recycle waste plastic bottles back into useful food packaging material. Around 35,000 tonnes of recovered plastic bottles, including milk and soft drink bottles, will be reprocessed into new food and drink packaging.
The company also recently announced that its second plant will be sited in North Wales (see MoreThanWasteArticle).
Customers buying their lunch from M&S will see the Closed Loop Office Recycling logo and details on how consumers can sign up to the scheme on all packaging for its new Food to Go range of sandwiches, salads, deli snacks and soft drinks - 90% of the packaging for the range is recyclable.
Solo Cup Europe, a partner in the office recycling scheme, manufactures single use packaging and disposables for the retail and foodservice industries. Its customers include major international retail coffee brands, retail supermarkets and foodservice contract service providers. The company is committed to using some of the high quality food grade recycled PET output from the Closed Loop plant in its packaging.
Further information
Interested businesses can sign up to join the scheme via the website (www.closedloopofficerecycling.co.uk). They will be issued with recycle sacks that can be collected on a regular basis to suit the needs of the business.