RecyclePlus is a new waste collection service for event and festival organisers from Grundon Waste Management.
Focusing on three waste streams that are traditionally more difficult to recycle – compostables, paper towels and coffee cups – the service guarantees 100% specialist recycling, helping organisers to meet sustainability targets.
Grundon’s Stephen Hill says: “While compostables such as plant-based cutlery and food trays have become increasingly popular – especially since the ban and restrictions on single-use plastics – the opportunities for correct disposal of these items aren’t widely available.
“The same applies to coffee cups and paper towels*, all three of these items need specialist reprocessing and, as a result, they all too often end up in general waste.
“RecyclePlus solves that problem by offering a disposal route for all three products via one simple collection service. Not only can events and festival organisers significantly increase recycling rates, further benefits include reducing the weight of general waste collections and enabling the collection of more detailed waste data, helping to meet waste targets and shape future sustainability programmes.”
Organisers and planners can decide if they want to adopt all three of the different waste streams or choose just one or two elements. Grundon provides colour-coded bins and waste sacks, with clear signage to demonstrate which items go into which section.
Once collected by one of Grundon’s latest fully electric zero emission vehicles, the waste will be sent for onward reprocessing at a number of specialist partners.
Compostables are sent to Envar, where a shredding and blending process produces a peat free high-quality PAS 100 compost; the paper hand towels are returned to Tork, where its innovative Tork PaperCircle® recycling service ensures used towels are recycled into new tissue products. The cups are transported to James Cropper, one of only two facilities in the UK with the capability to recycle coffee cups, where its CupCyclingTM process turns the waste into paper.
*paper towel collection service only applies to Tork paper towels.
