It has been determined that the Wolseley Leamington Spa site will be a zero waste to direct landfill now that the Sustainable Building Centre and National Distribution Centre (NDC) have reached new waste targets that are considered to be industry leading.
At the core of the move is a change in the way that waste is processed and handled which means that 97.5% of the waste that is sitting at the Wolseley Centre is now recyclable and an additional 99.8% of the NDC is recyclable, so that only 2.7% of the waste at the site actually needs to be compacted. Of course, even the actual waste is not completely trashed, because when it is compacted and burnt the result is electricity that is put to use in the city.
In an effort to figure out how they could make their site a zero waste to direct landfill Wolseley UK choose to hire Biffa, a recycling and waste management expert group of specialists. Biffa analyzed the amount of waste that was actually on the site and then looked at how much the waste could be recycled to reduce what was in the landfill.
They found that by placing bins throughout the landfill they could separate plastic, cardboard, vegetarian food waste, and paper once it was disposed helping to eliminate a great deal of the waste. Over at the NDC new processes were also created to help recycle timber, ceramic, and metal along with some waste that was created by branches.
In effort to help reduce the vegetarian food waste, the center also introduced worm farms to help turn them into compost that could be used at the Sustainable Building Centre in Wolseley.
The Site Facilities manager for Wolseley UK, John Page, stated that what they created was a complete loop where they are able to produce waste, process it, and then put it back to use again. He explained that all waste that is recycled is taken away from the site by Biffa and then processed with rebates saved so that there is no additional cost to the NDC and in fact an overall cost reduction to the centre.
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