Waste management

Our philosophy on waste management is firstly to understand how waste is created and then to look at ways of avoiding producing a waste stream in the first place.

Beyond this, and if waste production is completely unavoidable, we will then need to consider how to recycle more of the business’ outputs. Typically our waste customers across the UK report in excess of 90% true recycling levels and, dependent on the materials produced and overall volumes, a number of our clients are now ‘cash positive’ from a waste management budget perspective. This means the value of commodity revenues delivered through Mitie outweighs the costs of disposal and provides a net income from resource management activities. 

Financial and environmental sustainability is therefore at the very core of our culture and service offering. 

We have a comprehensive hazardous waste management service and a wealth of experts providing waste management services to clients in aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical, utilities, higher education, and manufacturing.

Our approach sets ourselves apart from the competition because we consider your organisation as a whole, integrating the disposal of hazardous waste into a comprehensive waste management strategy. This means that we can offer a full range of services including:

• The treatment or disposal of chemical waste, paints and adhesives, batteries, fluorescent tubes, low level radioactive wastes and laboratory chemical waste

• Chemical waste drum collection/tanker collections and cleaning

• Shutdown and emergency clearance management

• Spill response

No matter what your requirements, we can remove as much hazardous waste as possible out of your business process and dispose of what’s left, efficiently and cost-effectively – if you need it, we can also base our own employees on your site too.

We have over 30 years’ experience providing full commercial recycling services to clients as varied as manufacturing, airports, banks, engineering companies, corporate head offices, managed buildings, central government buildings and universities.

We can recycle pretty much everything – cans, cardboard, batteries, glass, paper, plastics, used oil, oily rags, metal, toners, and food waste.  We also recycle electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE recycling), with a best practice process that complies fully with current legislation. Our range of recycle bins can accommodate every budget and fit any work environment. 

Our aim is to help you achieve zero waste to landfill and we typically attain over 90% recycling rates within 12 months. 

Everything we do is tailored to your exact needs – right from the start we’ll agree a strategic recycling plan that will save you money and improve your environmental performance. 

As part of our best practice approach, we recommend securely shredding confidential waste through one of our specialist, security cleared service partners to ensure the waste is managed in the most secure and efficient manner. This can take place either on site – whereby the supplier attends the client sites and shred the materials there, before taking them to be recycled; or off site, where the wastes will be securely transported to an off-site shredding facility and disposed of. We make sure every aspect of the process is secure by providing the complete structure to ensure risks are minimised.

All staff are security checked to BS7858 (security screening of personnel working in a security environment) as required by the United Kingdom Security Shredding Association (UKSSA). The shredding will be completed as required by UKSSA to BS EN:15713:2009 (secure destruction of confidential material). All aspects of the service will be provided by an accredited member of UKSSA and all standards are met.

For off-site shredding, each container is identified and sealed with a unique numbered, tamper-proof seal before leaving your premises. The seal number will be identified on the collection note for your records. Containers will then be loaded onto a GPS tracked, hard sided and enclosed vehicle which is locked. The containers will be transported directly to a secure shredding plant for destruction on the same day. On unloading and before any shredding commences, the plant supervisor will log each seal number delivered on a receipt document. They will cross reference what has been delivered against what was collected, check that all seals are intact and confirm that all containers have been delivered securely. Only then will the shredding will be completed (including the used seals) behind keypad entry doors and under close supervision of full coverage and real time CCTV. Once the shredding is completed and invoiced, a certificate of destruction will follow. This will include the seal numbers used to complete the full audit trail. 

Furthermore we add value to this service by:

• Actively assess site requirements and, where possible, reduce the actual number of bins/site visits required, thereby improving individual site security and reducing associated costs

• Randomly check internal general waste bins, and where appropriate photograph breaches of the confidential waste protocol, and send this information to the security team

• Carry out sub-contractor audits during collections, including personnel details held on file

• The account management team will also carry out unannounced audits on all of our nominated suppliers secure destruction facilities on a scheduled basis

• During regular site visits, our regional account management team re-examine the collection modes in place, and offer advice on existing arrangements to improve security

We hold a number of large confidential waste contracts, including leading high street banking clients, government departments and research organisations.

Food and catering waste can account for as much as 30% of the total waste generated by an organisation. It is also one of the most important waste streams to manage correctly. Disposing of food waste straight to landfill not only misses out on various resource opportunities but it also runs the risk of contaminating other waste streams, preventing the recycling of all other materials segregated correctly. 

Our award-winning approach to managing food waste is bespoke to each client and is designed to establish a simple, yet efficient food waste segregation system that addresses the tough challenges of food preparation environments.

Innovation comes from embedding the sustainable practices within your working culture. We use the principles of the waste hierarchy to identify where the excess food is created and what we can do to prevent/reduce this at source. If this is not possible, we look at possible re-use opportunities, such as working with local charities or implementing technology that can convert food waste into a resource. Not only does this save on costs and provide a more sustainable way of managing food waste, it also reduces the associated carbon footprint from unnecessary vehicle movements. 

Check out our Network Rail case study to see how we have successfully managed to convert leftover food waste into a resource by the use of food drying technology. 

We work in partnership with all major clinical waste disposal companies in the UK to provide you with the most cost effective and efficient service. We can even combine several different suppliers to create a service tailor-made for you, which we bill under a single invoice.

Our services include clinical waste treatment, high temperature incineration (HTI), and Energy from Waste (EfW), as well as the management of offensive waste (including the reclassification of non-infectious clinical wastes), radioactive waste and hazardous chemical waste.

Our aim is to reduce waste to landfill while providing an efficient and professional clinical waste management service that saves you money and complies with all the relevant legislation. This includes the UK Department of Health guidance on the Safe Management of Healthcare Waste.