Waste is a key part of any business -whilst reducing waste can help increase profitability – it can never be totally eliminated and all businesses have to deal cope with waste management.

Rubbish and waste in some businesses is often minimal and requires little more thought than the removal of rubbish from our homes does. However, in some industries, rubbish removal and waste management can be an integral part of a running a successful business and should never be dealt with lightly:

Food Industry

In the UK there are more fast-food restaurants, diners and takeaways, per person than in any other nation on earth* and all that takeaway food can result in masses of waste that the fast food industry has to deal with.

In the fast food business the rubbish discarded comes in two types:

• Packaging and wrapping
• Food waste

And each has to be dealt with differently.

Packaging and wrapping from fast food items is often discarded close to the premises and businesses need to work with their local authority to ensure there are enough public bins and external bins for litter.

Food waste has to be handled differently, however. Food can attract vermin and can also lead to unpleasant smells. For general use inside the business a good kitchen bin should be used. It needs to be large enough to handle day-to-day waste while also should have a well-fitted lid. You may find for ease of use a pedal bin or sensor bin will be prevent the need from handling it.

Externally – food waste needs to be stored in an outdoor bin which also has a good lid. External bins will also need to be sturdy to prevent them being toppled by vermin.

Office Paper and Recycling

Offices are another common business area that can amass large amounts of waste. Generally most office waste comes in the form of paper.

Paper can of course be recycled so a good paper recycling bin or container should be kept to allow the paper to be collected and recycled. There should be some risk assessment into storing paper as it is a potential fire risk. If waste aper is discarded to an outdoor area a fire retardant bin might be worth a consideration.

Large Capacity Recycling Bin

Steel large capacity recycling bins are a good idea for nearly all types of businesses that discards a lot of recyclable material. There are also recycling bins for collection of plastic cups – another common item discarded from business.

The care sector is an important but challenging industry. Ensuring vulnerable people are cared for requires a multitude of skills and abilities, but when mistakes are made criticisms can often be scathing.

Hygiene is one aspect where many sections of the care industry have come under criticism in recent years; the spread of hospital acquired infections being one reason, which is why those working in the care sector now consider hygiene to be amongst one of the highest priorities.

However, whilst a lot of emphasis is based on cleaning and ensuring floors and surfaces are clean, waste management is often overlooked as a secondary priority. But waste management is vital in any care sector surrounding, particularly in preventing the spread of infection.

Overflowing bins, the wrong type of receptacle for soiled garments or lack of regularity in the emptying of waste bins can add to the risk of infection or of disease spreading.

Hospitals,care homes and even nurseries need to ensure they have the correct bins and waste management procedures for dealing with things such as soiled garments, used bandages and even nappies. They all need to be stored in the correct receptacle to protect people in the care sector from risk of infection.

Sanitary bins are not the same as conventional bins. Bandages or hygiene products need to stored carefully before they are disposed of and while there are laws governing the disposal of such items to keep them from regular rubbish landfills, there is little legislation governing the storage of these items in the care sector itself.

However, sanitary bins, and even nappy bins are created to ensure that soiled items or products that could possibly contain pathogens are stored safely without risking the spread of disease. They are manufactured with good quality lids and are often pedal activated to reduce the risk of spreading germs through repeated contact with the bin itself.

A nappy bin is often overlooked but is important to prevent possible infection

They are also manufactured from bacteria resistant materials such as Polypropylene which offers limited surface area for germs to attach to.

The size of sanitary bin or nappy bin obviously depends on the amount of items disposed of and the regularity of the emptying of the bin but its always wise to err on the side of caution because of the bin gets full and just one sanitary item is disposed of improperly, serious repercussions could result.

We are all wasteful. Each year, an average person throws out over a tonne of rubbish into our waste bins. And our rubbish bins contain everything from organic and food waste to paper, plastic and even metals.

Even though many of us now recycle and use recycling bins, most of us are aware that much of the rubbish that we throw out ends up in landfill sites, often referred to as rubbish dumps, garbage dumps or tips. But these rubbish dumps are not the scourge on the environment many of us assume and far from just being just large pits where tonnes of rubbish is piled up for all eternity, land fills are constructed after a lot of thought and consideration.

For a site to be viable for a landfill or rubbish dump it has to adhere to many requirements, which include:
Location
Type
Stability
Capacity
Environment Safeguards

Location – the location of a landfill is incredibly important. Firstly, dumps can’t be built too near to people’s homes because of smells, the effects on house prices and disapproval of local residents. But also landfills need to have good access by road or rail, be cost effective (cheap) land to buy.

Type – Rubbish dumps are built in three different guises: Pits;often using existing holes forged my mining. Canyons; using holes forged by nature; and mounds; piling rubbish above ground.

Stability – Landfills have to be on stable ground. There should be no earth quake faults, water tables, rivers, streams or flood plains.

Capacity – Any planning of a landfill requires enough capacity for the authorities that use the dump. Busy city centres where millions of rubbish bins are emptied every week will require larger capacities than smaller areas where the amount of waste discarded is less.

Environment Safeguards – land fills are built under strict guidelines to prevent as much environmental impact as possible. Soil, water systems and other effects on the environment are seriously considered before any site is allocated as a land fill. And while a former land fill site will be no good to build houses on, in fact, many land fills are often turned into nature parks once they are filled which can off-set any damage done to the environment while the landfill was in use.