Residents pledge to hugely reduce landfill rubbish removal in London

London is implementing a series of measures aimed at reducing the quantity of waste produced by its residents by driving resource efficiency and optimizing recycling levels.

The city’s goal is to reduce the negative impact of waste activities on the environment and maximize London’s infrastructure for managing waste. Also, by adhering to the Advancing Towards Zero Waste Declaration, the city’s residents pledge to reduce landfill rubbish in London and contribute to a global movement to create prosperous and sustainable zero-waste cities.

About the London Environment Strategy

The London Environment Strategy engages local authorities to develop special Reduction and Recycling Plans by 2020 to decrease the quantities of waste from local households and businesses. Also, the City has implemented new Emission Performance Standards (EPS) for greenhouse gases resulting from waste management.

To promote waste reduction, improve rubbish removal in London and increase recycling rates, the City is creating new waste management facilities. Also, local authorities are helping companies such as Clearbee to offer cost-effective waste collection and recycling services. And, to decrease the quantity of single-use plastic bottles in London, the City is improving access to free consumable water. In an effort to inspire a biodiesel revolution, and reduce CO2 emissions, London is turning all cooking oil, fats oils and greases, or FOGs, into fuel for its buses and vehicles fleet.

On the C40 Membership

London has joined the C40 community, which is a network of main cities from around the world, to address the negative impact of rubbish on the environment. Through the Advancing Towards Zero Waste Declaration, London is committed to cut the quantity of waste generated by 15%, to strengthen partnerships with specialist companies such as Clearbee to decrease the quantity of waste sent to landfills, and improve the waste diversion rate to 70% by end of 2030. With its partner cities such as Paris, Milan, New York, and San Francisco, London is accelerating the change to a zero-waste city and it’s actively supporting the global disposing of about 87 million tons of rubbish by 2030.

And, because the production of waste is the quickest growing pollutant, taking action to reduce rubbish removal in London will have the strongest positive impact on the environment.

As part of the Declaration, with the support of local clearance companies such as Clearabee, London will implement actions to reduce rubbish removal in London by lowering food loss and waste generated by food producers, retailers and consumers, increasing the recycling of food waste to improve the quality of soils, and banning single-use plastics and non-recyclable materials while educating residents in terms of sustainability and recycling programs.

Since the beginning of his mandate, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has proven great ambitions and has undertaken a series of programs to keep rubbish removal in London under control. He aims to transform the City into a zero-waste capital.

Clearabee – a Revolutionary Approach to Rubbish Removal

As a leader in the waste management industry, Clearabee provides fully integrated rubbish removal and recycling services throughout the UK.

Thanks to their flexible approach to rubbish removal, you can sustainably dispose of any small or large quantity of rubbish at any time. You’ll also enjoy a wide range of rubbish removal options such as skip hire, skip bags or furniture removal services.

And because the company diverts more than 95% of the collected rubbish away from being sent to landfills and offsets their vehicles’ CO2 emissions by 150%, whenever you book a clearance with Clearabee, you’ll contribute to protecting the environment.

Why it’s important to implement lean manufacturing in your business

In any manufacturing business, two of the most expensive and most common types of problems has to do with efficiency and product or environmental wastage.

Without a proper system in place, businesses are experiencing the negative effects of wasting many products, that could’ve otherwise been better utilized. To combat this problem, businesses can follow through the process of lean manufacturing.

Lean manufacturing is also referred to as “lean production.” This is the process of minimizing waste in the manufacturing aspect of the business, which, in turn, maximizes productivity. The less waste that you produce, the better you contribute towards the environment’s health and the company as a whole. This is what led businesses to go for the concept of “lean manufacturing.”

That said, here are some of the benefits that you can gain from implementing lean manufacturing in your business:

1. You Can Aim For Better Product Quality

Apart from materials that are wasted, without lean manufacturing, you’re also wasting the time of your employees. Instead of focusing on the product’s quality, your employees are caught up in managing products and materials that don’t even get to waste. Can you just imagine having more inventory to manage and to control? That means your workforce is already tied up; product quality is no longer the priority.

With lean manufacturing, you only have the materials that you need and use. Because of this, your employees have more time on their hands to focus on innovation and the product’s quality.

Watch this video to learn more about how lean manufacturing is applied in a real company and its positive results to the business.

2. Your Employees’ Satisfaction Increases

Because you always have extra inventory on hand, there seems to be so much for your employees to do. More stocks mean additional and unnecessary work has to be done. Chances are, your employees are already aware that you’re over-stocking. They may also be wishing you to practice lean manufacturing, but might not have management’s vote to do so.

If you noticed that employee satisfaction is decreasing and you have a lot of inventory on hand, now’s the time for you to switch to this better system. With lesser inventory on your factories, this means that your employees can have their focus on the work that has to be done. Apart from better productivity, your employees also end up happier and more satisfied with their job.

Now, they’re finally doing a job that has a direct impact on the production, rather than keep themselves busy on materials that won’t even get to be utilized soon.

3. Your Customer Service Improves

Another aspect that improves because of lean manufacturing is your customer service. One of the principles of lean manufacturing has to do with identifying the value that’s perceived by your customers. This means that you have in mind the values that are set by your customer.

Remember that customers always need the following: businesses that provide them what they want and their wants can be conveniently purchased.

Because you’re only keeping an inventory of those materials that are needed or demanded, you can focus your energy on really providing value to your customers. If there is something that they need that you don’t have, you can immediately order it anyway. That way, you’re only keeping those that are valued by your customers.

4. Your Lead Time Improves

With lean manufacturing, your manufacturing processes also improve. There’s less confusion in the factory or in the production department, as the employees are only dealing with all of the stocks that they have in the warehouse.

For instance, for the succeeding months, the demand suddenly decreases, and you have kept so much extra stock on hand? All these extra stocks are taking up space that you could’ve otherwise spent on other more important stocks that could’ve been used productively for whatever product needs to be manufactured that is in demand now.

Without lean manufacturing processes, you’re slowing down your lead-time by crowding your factories with unnecessary materials that aren’t really needed in any of your production activities at the moment.

5. You’re Reducing Waste Products

Without proper lean manufacturing methods in place, you’re opening up your business to a lot of waste products. Following Toyota’s model, the lean approach is supposed to increase productivity by improving the processing speed and quality because of lesser waste products.

Not only are you becoming friendlier to your clients and to other companies, but you’re also becoming more sustainable for the environment. When there is less waste emitted, you’re aptly allowing yourself to have better corporate social responsibility practices.

Remember that you have a responsibility to uphold and protect the environment at all times. Businesses and firms, be it manufacturing, engineering firms, shopping warehouses, and what-not are the number one contributor to environmental damage and wastes. You should annually strive to reduce your carbon footprint as an industry.

Conclusion

Competition in the manufacturing and production industry is quite tough nowadays. For you to stay in the competition, you need to evolve your practices. By incorporating lean manufacturing in your company, you’re more efficient with your waste.

Following the principle of Toyota, you focus only on having stock of your actual needs. With this management and production practices, you’re better, in general, as a corporation.

The last straw: how businesses should think about plastic

It’s tough to be plastic these days – and rightfully so. It would seem the days of thoughtless consumerism around plastic is over, with a keen focus on changed attitudes as awareness grows.

That said, of the over 5 million tonnes of plastic waste produced in UK each year, only around a quarter of it is recycled. It’s well-known, but it bears repeating: our consumption of plastic is unsustainable. Within the business environment, the following are some key considerations around plastic recycling in the workplace.

THINK ABOUT (AND ACT FOR) THE ENVIRONMENT

• Environmental concerns around plastics arise long before they end up in the ocean. The manufacture of plastics also has environmental consequences. Plastics are a chemical bond of oil and gas and this process is energy- and resource-intensive.
• Plastic infamously takes a very long time to break down. In landfill, combined with other waste forms, toxic leachate from plastics are released into the ground, often ending up in our water systems. These are damaging to human health, wildlife, and eco-systems. Large volumes of plastic also end up in streams, rivers, and the ocean. This is extremely harmful to marine wildlife and eco-systems.
• We need a healthy environment for our own health. The contamination of our water sources and the food we consume from the oceans has potentially dire health effects.

GOVERNMENT’S AIMS

• A target of 50% of the UK’s plastic to be recycled by 2020
• Three quarters of the UK’s plastic to be recycled by 2035
• In addition to single-use plastic regulations, the Government is proposing a number of regulations around plastic usage. One of the main areas affecting businesses is packaging. Government aims to tax plastic packaging which is made from less than 30% recycled material and impose a ban on plastic packaging where another material could be used in its place.

HOW TO REDUCE YOUR PLASTIC WASTE TIPS

• Be mindful of how you and your business consume plastics. Are alternatives available? If so, use them.
• Re-use your plastics wherever possible. Be conscientious around packaging and try to innovate around ways to use your plastics elsewhere.
• Make waste management a part of your business strategy. Recycling culture has myriad benefits for businesses – including potential cost savings and an enhanced reputation for responsible business.
• Recycle responsibly. This means avoiding contamination wherever possible. Educate your employees on what goes into which bin, cleaning, and readying your bins for recycling.

PLASTIC RECYCLING QUICK FACTS

• What plastic can be recycled?Every plastic can be recycled. It’s just that some are more costly and complicated to recycle. Your plastic water bottle? This is one of the most commonly recycled forms of plastic. The least recycled plastic? Polystyrene.
• What is dry mix recycling?Recycling creates new products and components from old products. Dry mix recycling takes uncontaminated plastic items (and other products like glass, aluminium cans, cardboard, and paper) and gives it new life, reducing its impact and the resources associated with creating new products.
• Single-stream recycling.A time- and cost-effective recycling solution for many businesses, single-stream recycling removes the need for bin system and assumes the responsibility for cleaning and sorting waste on your business’s behalf.

DOES YOUR BUSINESS HAVE AN EFFECTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY?

For many businesses, waste management is a question of cost – and understandably so. It makes sound business sense to shop the market for the best rates on everyday business services. However, every business stands to benefit from the advice of waste specialists. This allows for waste management solutions tailored to every business’s unique set of requirements and circumstances. This is the aim of the team at Smarter Business. Click here to find out more about their waste management and other utility and business services.

Tips for going eco at your next exhibition

With huge amounts of energy and resources required to deliver on such short lived projects, exhibitions might appear in direct contradiction to the concept of environmentalism.

Thanks to advances in technology and a burgeoning eco awareness across the business board, there are ways you can reduce your environmental imprint in the exhibition space.

Stand

Exhibition stands can be short lived affairs, up for just a few days before being dismantled, at which point a lot of the branding can and often does end up in the bin.

Where possible reuse your materials, keep your messaging simple and avoid using dates or seasonal imagery, not only will this cut down on waste but it should save your business money too. Many display products allow you to keep the frame and update the graphic message.

If you’re not able to reuse your backdrops then trying to make the waste as recyclable as possible is the key – using recyclable backdrops such as fabric rather than plastics for instance.

Think about your up and coming events, and the size of space that you will be occupying, how best can you use your display equipment without having to change it for each show. It is possible to hire certain elements from the venue or a display company.

During the build it’s also worth considering the entirety of your stands carbon footprint. Not just in regard to the waste that you personally produce at the event, but also the carbon that’s consumed by both the production and transportation of the products. For instance, where possible use products made from eco materials, which rely on low energy production processes, and that are locally sourced.

Go digital

Discard the paper leaflets, business cards and attendee packs and go digital instead. The amount of waste that’s produced from discarded handouts at exhibitions is staggering. And not only is it bad for the environment, it’s not good for business – it’s a waste of money and resources, and if your marketing material ends up in the bin it’s not driving sales either.

Instead there are tools on the market that capitalise on QR codes and mobile apps to create digital platforms that allow interested delegates to simply swipe and collect information from exhibitors. Many exhibitions actually offer their own scanner hire and provide all delegates with coded badges, which allows data collection for the exhibitor too.

Going digital not only cuts down on waste and drives efficiency in data collection, but it also provides easy to use data post event, which should enable the business to effectively chase their sales leads.

Team

Exhibition events are resource greedy, not just in the materials they require in the build and execution of an event, but also in man hours required on the ground. The actual event itself can run for multiple days, each of which may demand up to ten or twelve hours a day on the stand. And for this reason any exhibitor will reasonably need a large team of people to effectively service the event. So with all of these people involved it’s essential to consider the impact they’ll have on the environment.

When organising the logistics for a team the two key elements that can have an eco impact are the travel and accommodation arrangements. Most exhibitions take place in major cities, so wherever possible choosing train travel over cars is preferential, or if vehicles are needed then opting for a green fuel or electric car hire company is the best alternative. And in these days of environmental awareness hotels have picked up the eco baton, which means there’s a good selection of carbon neutral or low carbon hotels and self catering apartments in many of the UK’s major cities.

Carbon offsetting is a great thing for businesses to back to increase their green credentials and to show that they are serious about the environment. As well as a fuzzy glow for the businesses of ‘doing the responsible thing’, it also creates a great boasting point to boost conversions as a USP.

It’s now not enough for businesses just to say they’re green by adding a recycling box in their kitchens – it’s more about becoming carbon neutral and making more considered purchases that aren’t wasteful to the environment (in terms of their production as well as opportunity to reuse & recycle to not end up in landfill – which also increases their ROI).

Offsetting

Why not join the likes of Sky and offset your carbon, it is relatively cheap and makes a brighter future for all.

Carbon offsetting is great for businesses to back to increase their green credentials and to show that they are serious about the environment. As well as a fuzzy glow for the businesses of ‘doing the responsible thing’, it also creates a great boasting point to boost conversions as a USP. It’s about becoming carbon neutral and making more considered purchases that aren’t wasteful to the environment in terms of their production as well as opportunity to reuse & recycle to not end up in landfill – which also increases their ROI.

Nimlok are providers of bespoke exhibition stand design and hire. Visit the site for all your exhibition stand needs.