The service, which collects glass packaging waste from licensed premises, was extended after successful trials in London, Manchester and Leeds.
 Biffa says recycling glass packaging waste saves 315kg of climate change-causing carbon dioxide for every tonne recycled |
Biffa, which was listed as an independent company this autumn, said previous attempts to run nationwide commercial glass collections had failed because of difficulties faced by retailers and the end of public subsidies.
But the waste firm now believes the rising Landfill Tax means that it is “now cheaper to recycle than it is to landfill”, and that reprocessors had “heavily” invested in sorting technology to cope with sorting bottles from pubs and clubs.
Biffa said it was aiming to cut the 500,000 tonnes of commercial glass packaging waste currently going to landfill. It said only 6% of commercially-sourced glass bottles and jars are being recycled.
“Crazy”
“We’re having a push to stop this crazy situation,” explained Peter Clayson, recycling development manager at Biffa.
“We’ve already trialled this in London, Manchester and Leeds, and it’s been a great success. It’s worked so well that we’re now launching the service in the West Midlands. We know we can make recycling easy and cost effective for companies,” Mr Clayson added.
Collections are available to any pub, club, hotel, restaurant or commercial enterprise that produces waste glass bottles within the company's catchment areas.
The company said after accounting for transport and processing, the recycling would save 315kg of greenhouse gas emissions for every tonne of the collected glass turned into new containers.
The collection of more glass is seen as important to meet UK producer responsibility obligations for packaging producers, Biffa added. UK businesses are legally responsible for paying to reach a national 65% recycling target for glass packaging waste (see legislation section).
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