Social enterprise Bryson Recycling, which has historically only operated within the Northern Ireland waste market, is actively seeking opportunities to tender for waste and recycling collection contracts in England, Scotland and Wales.
Bryson Recycling is part of the Bryson Charitable Group, a Northern Irish social enterprise. Its recycling division was launched in 1993 and provides collection services to over 170,000 households across the country as well as commercial recycling services under contracts with a number of councils including: Armagh, Ballymena; Belfast; Carrickfergus; Castlereagh; and, Newtownabbey.
The organisation is a proponent of source separated collections however it operates a materials recovery facility (MRF) on behalf of the arc21 councils in the east of Northern Ireland.
The company has opened a new office in Richmond, London and has appointed Andy Bond, who previously worked for the Ealing-based recycling social enterprise ECT Recycling, as its development director to lead the move. The firm has already identified several opportunities within the market and has begun work on one tender in England.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com last week (January 11), Mr Bond explained that Bryson Recycling was looking for opportunities outside of Northern Ireland as the offering from that marketplace is limited.
He said: The organisation has made the strategic decision to say we are going to look at opportunities beyond the normal places we have worked in the past. There are not an awful lot of opportunities to grow the business in Northern Ireland any more.”
Social enterprise
Mr Bond said Bryson Recycling would fill the gap for a social enterprise in the British waste market which was left after ECT Recycling was sold to May Gurney in May 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story). Before the sale, ECT Recycling owned a 50% stake in Bryson Recycling before it was passed back to Bryson Recycling ownership.
“The organisation has made the strategic decision to say we are going to look at opportunities beyond the normal places we have worked in the past. There are not an awful lot of opportunities to grow the business in Northern Ireland any more.”
– Andy Bond, Bryson Recycling
Commenting on what Bryson would bring to the wider UK-market, he said: We are bringing a social enterprise culture as well as a different business model to all of the others available. We dont have shareholders. We are not working to maximise dividends for the owners of the business. The reasons people work for social enterprises are the philosophy and culture of what we do and for a recycling business it is about the environmental outcomes as well.
He added that social enterprises had traditionally brought innovation to the market and Bryson Recycling would hope to continue with this trend.
Mr Bond said Bryson Recycling is keen to talk to councils about how they can help them achieve the recycling results they need.
Service
At first, Mr Bond said Bryson Recycling will tender for smaller collection contracts before looking to tackle the larger ones. However, he said he is hopeful that one day it will be able to compete with the big players in the English waste market.
In terms of infrastructure, he said Bryson Recycling would be operating depots and mini-MRFs as it would aim to keep the need for mechanical separation to a minimum.
At Bryson Recycling we believe that kerbside sort recycling is the key component for effective collection systems. We have been delivering kerbside recycling services in Northern Ireland for over ten years.
Trials
As part of its continuing work in Northern Ireland, Bryson Recycling is meanwhile set to launch trials of a new service with two councils in late spring /early summer 2013.
The trials will cover a total of 4,800 households across the councils and see recyclables collected in the 3BoxStack which is manufactured by Straight. The 3BoxStack consists of three individual kerbside boxes one 40 litre container and two 55 litre containers which are stacked on top of each other on a trolley and are designed to aid the source separation of recyclables but take up minimal space.
Paper will be collected in the top box, along with fringe materials such as bagged batteries or foil, mixed plastics and cans will be collected in the middle box and glass and cardboard in the bottom box. The glass and cardboard will be sorted at the kerbside while the plastics and cans will be sent to Bryson Recyclings materials recycling facility in Belfast for sorting. Collections will be made using Romaquip Kerb-Sort vehicles.
Bryson Recycling was involved in the development of both the 3BoxStack and the Romaquip Kerb-Sort vehicles.
Separation
Speaking to letsrecycle.com Eric Randall, director of Bryson Recycling, said the purpose of the trials was to achieve a high level of recycling and see if the method of collection was cost effective for councils.
He said: The purpose of the trial is to achieve the high bulk collections that you can through a wheeled bin but through an intermediate container which is half box and half bin which is the best of both worlds.
Commenting on the benefits of the trial, Mr Randall said: A very limited amount of sorting is required at the kerbside as well and we can sort plastics and cans at the plant when it gets back. We keep the need for separation down to an absolute minimum and only mix the materials we know we can get a high value from.
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He said the containers do cost more than other types but councils will more than make their money back from reduced landfill costs. He claimed that by using this type of collection system councils did not have to worry about changes to the revised Waste Framework Directive.
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