Jun 29 2006
Recycling services for small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) could soon take a significant step forward following the announcement by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) of a second round of feasibility studies into their increase.
In the first step, WRAP is calling for Expressions of Interest from suitably qualified candidates to carry out the feasibility study, which will deliver a series of trials to collect materials for recycling from SMEs that presently receive no recycling service.
The trials will evaluate a range of factors involved in SME recycling collections, including geographical location, collection and communication techniques and financial models and hope to build upon earlier feasibility trials undertaken in year one of WRAP's SME recycling programme.
WRAP is particularly interested in receiving proposals to develop appropriate recycling services for SMEs in the construction, demolition and refurbishment sector; for developing collection and recycling services for commercial food waste and to develop location specific services for example at business parks and industrial estates. Other proposals for appropriate SME recycling collection services to other sectors including offices, retail and wholesale, hotels, pubs, restaurants and glaziers, will also be considered.
Historically, SMEs have often found themselves with limited recycling services due to the lack of cost effectiveness of small scale collections, lack of incentive within existing financial and logistical arrangements for waste disposal and a lack of internal resources and capacity to implement and manage schemes. The overall aim of this study is to overcome these barriers and help SMEs improve their capacity to recycle more waste, thus improving their business resource efficiency.
The funding for the study comes from Defra's Business Resource and Efficiency (BREW) programme as well as the devolved administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Josephine Abbott, Project Manager for SME recycling at WRAP, said: "The first round of feasibility studies has highlighted both the fact that many SMEs are enthusiastic about the idea of being able to recycle at work, and that recycling companies are keen to branch out into this area.
"We hope that this second round of studies will allow us to provide more recycling services to small businesses and make the case for them boosting their resource efficiency and helping them to make a valuable environmental contribution."