Container experts champion recent recycling success

By Mobile Mini UK Ltd in Article

One of the leading worldwide providers of portable accommodation and secure storage containers, Mobile Mini UK, has shared recent company waste management data to show the impressive improvements constructions companies can make if they address environmental sustainability.

The latest Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) UK Statistics on waste reported in March 2020 that the UK generated 66.2 million tonnes of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste (C&D waste). This represented 62% of total UK waste generated in 2016.

Mobile Mini has a fleet of over 40,000 portable units for a variety of storage solutions and 16 strategically placed sites throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Over the past year, 89% of waste across all Mobile Mini sites has been successfully recycled, with only 2% being sent to landfills.

The overall tonnage recycled across all Mobile Mini sites over the past year was 752ton and the amount of waste recovered was 73ton. The majority of this waste is generated from what returns to Mobile Mini in their units after they have been hired by customers, with the company disposing of this waste responsibly by segregating. A total of 1124 movements were needed to transport this waste from each of the depots, but by communicating a company-wide environmental strategy, efficiencies have improved and the volume of these journeys has been reduced.

Employees have been advised on ensuring skips are filled correctly and depots are tasked individually with reusing or repurposing as much as possible, so the number of movements remains limited and reduces the carbon footprint of the collecting and disposing of waste. Chris Tyrer, Head of Product and Technical at Mobile Mini UK, said

“We are working with waste management providers to see how we can further reduce our landfill and also sharing the best practice from within our own depots that are currently achieving low to zero figures. Our aim is to replicate this across every site. Three of our depots, North West, Thames Valley and Humber, have sent nothing to landfill this year, with our Sunderland depot impressively recording zero waste recovered or sent to landfill; every bit of waste they have generated has been recycled.

“As a company, we are very good at recycling and recovering the waste we produce, but if we all do our bit, we can reduce these numbers even further. We our encouraging our suppliers to help by supplying materials in reusable/recyclable packaging and each depot is ensuring they dispose of waste into the correct skips. We would like other businesses in the construction industry to see the success we have had by addressing these issues and we hope they will see the benefits in committing to taking this need seriously too.”

​Mobile Mini, Headquartered in Stockton-on-Tees, has benefited from an enviable record of zero reportable accidents for over two years and earlier this year furthered its reputation for excellence after being named the GOLD winner of the Customer Experience category at the 2022 UK Business and Innovation Awards. 7% of employees are qualified Mental Health First Aiders and in recent times, the business has invested in life-saving defibrillator equipment for all branches as well as new safety features installed on an upgraded fleet of crane-mounted trucks.